Michael Hobbs:
>That said, I do not advocate catching and killing this bird. There are
>so few vagrants (by definition) that we probably will never be able to
>really study the questions mentioned above.

And, of course, catching and killing the bird because such a scientific
study might someday be undertaken is somewhat different than than
doing so as part of a study which actually is in existence...

Now, much traditional collection occurs outside the context of a
particular study. But, it is done in the context of an ongoing
program of taxnomic research and is easily justifiable for
this reason, IMO.

I'm not sure that this kind of context exists for the study of
vagrants per se. It's a fascinating question, though, for
instance what is the optimum level of vagrancy? If a
species navigational tools evolve to the level that none
stray, then the species may be poorly adapted to deal with,
say, climatic change. On the other hand, if none of the
members of the species can find "home" and proper habitat,
the end result is obvious.

So, one would think there'd be an optimal level of vagrancy
for various species under various conditions of climate
change, though of course the conditions for selection may
not have occured. For instance, if predicted global
warming actually occurs at the rate some scientists expect,
the pace will be well beyond any past episodes we're aware
of...nice thought, eh?

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>