Scott Ray wrote:

> My vote is for a skilled someone to capture this bird and
determine its sex
> despite resistance from some quarters. Apparently some believe
that in the
> case of CCLO, capture is only ethical in their 'normal' range. What
> difference does it make where the bird is found?

It's not really a question of ethics although that does play a
part, it's more the value of catching a single bird. The only way to
resolve plumage issues would be to catch large numbers from there
the plumage differences could be documented more fully. It's
doubtful that gathering data on a single bird would be that useful
- even if we could find someone working on chestnut-colared
longspurs to give the data to !!!

There is also a degree of sensitivity involved in this as well. The
bird is in a very public place and widely known about in the
birding community. Randomly banding birds doesn't send a
particularly clear message about the scientific objectives of the
program.

See ya,

Stuart
---
Stuart MacKay - powered by NeXTSTEP

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