Thursday, April 06, 2006

"The Grail Bill"

Posted today on the Arkansas Birding listserv...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Broke-back Bayou?

Anonymous said...

This was posted furhter back in the AR Listserve. I refer you to the comment on Longspurs - "but a few Smith's might have been present" Notice the creeping "might have".

I love the precision of the bird ID going on with these searchers. They seem perfectly trained to report what "may be" or be "99% sure" it was an IBWO.

If this is really how some IBWO search team members identify birds (and it seems that it is) methinks we have a problem in the Bayou. Oddly, in bird reports, species identification is actually important.

Arghhhhh.
_________________________________

Subject: Stuttgart Airport (from IBWO volunteer searchers)
From: Dan Scheiman
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 09:23:33 -0500

on April 1 three of the volunteer IBWO searchers (L. Lade, A. Evans, and E.
Wade) birded Stuttgart Airport. They reported:
----------------
American Golden-Plover: ~60
Longspurs: ~30 - mostly Lapland, but a few Smith’s may have been present
Savannah Sparrow: very abundant in the grassy areas along the runways

Three other birders the group met reported Sprague’s Pipit and LeConte’s
Sparrow.
----------------
I don't think this is an April Fools joke. Its late for the longspurs but
not for Sprague's Pipit according to Arkansas Audubon's checklist.

Dan Scheiman
Little Rock, AR