Subject: Re: mystery raptor
Date: Aug 9 17:49:24 1996
From: Tom Foote - footet at elwha.evergreen.edu




On Fri, 9 Aug 1996, Don Cecile wrote:

> Thankyou Tom and Anna for your suggestions on the mystery raptor. After I
> posted my message I realized that I had not actually mentioned the bird I
> had thought (hoped?) it might be. I admittedly had a very poor view of the
> bird, and my mind was certainly elsewhere at the time but I was leaning
> toward Swainson's hawk.

Don--

I ruled out Swainy as you thought it had longish wings..
that's why I opted for N. Harrier rather than Coop's..
hmm-mmmmm...now you've really got us curious..

>
[snip]

> What I am trying to say here is that birders I have known whether
> inexperienced or not often jump to conclusions, at least momentarily during
> observations but the difference lies in that the experienced observer has
> greater depth of knowledge from which to rely on in "interpreting" the
> observation. Far too often I have witnessed somewhat brutal attacks on
> inexperienced birders who follow a similar path as I have just done but in
> actuality, don't we all do this?
>
I certainly hope that doesn't happen too often..what beginners
really need is encouragement.


> I guess the conclusion from my episode is that considering both likelihood
> and my own description of what I saw, the bird was probably a Cooper's Hawk
> and the suggestion I might have made toward Swainson's Hawk is not
> defensible. But one question does remain, why do I (we?) often make such
> leaps in logic only to correct them after the fact? Is it due to
> expectations? Is it due to a need to find rarirites? Most often, I have
> felt that the answer was yes to both of these questions, however in my
> particular situation, my mind was literally elsewhere which would have
> removed any prior expectations or need to find a rarity.
>
I guess I'd have to pose the question here *what harm is done
if one of us mis-ID's something? The worst that happens is
someone goes off on a wild goose (nevermind, Peggi.. :)

Case in point: last winter I got a phone call from a woman
new to birding who was beside herself with excitement because
she and her new-to-birding husband had *positively* ID'd a
northern Hawk Owl at the Nisqually NWR. Well, the phone lines
heated up and Burt Guttman, Lanny Carpenter and I headed out
there. None of us really believed it was there, but, hey,
didn't Lanny nail a long eared owl out there the previous year?
Of course we didn't find it. Instead we found short eared owls
and other interesting things to see..and we ran into other
birders--David Jennings, past Black Hills Audubon prex, and
others, who, ordinarily would not have gone out that day as it
was what used to be called inclement weather..however, we had
a heckuvva good time while we got wet and none of us was sorry
we had gone out to find the alleged rarity.

I have a sense this doesn't address the philosophical aspect
of your question, but perhaps the practical aspect makes it
moot. whatever it takes to get us out there, short of a bomb
scare, can't be all bad...there's a lot of neat stuff out there
and we keep making excuses not to go look.

Tom