Tweets,

I am reminded of an 'incident' early in my bird-banding "career". I had =
been banding backyard birds at my father's place in Albany Oregon for =
several years - getting good returns from previous years on juncos, =
crowned sparrows and house finches. I also will ring the less common =
birds that I catch (House Sparrows are pretty rare here in West Oly), =
'cause you just never know what might be an important data point to =
someone when all the records are finally looked at...

A Northern Mockingbird showed up one December morning when I was =
banding; I moved my net and caught the bird within 15 minutes, measured, =
weighed, banded and released it. Afterwards, I called the folks on the =
local (Corvallis-Albany) phone tree to let them know about the bird.

County listing was hot and heavy in Oregon in the mid-80s, and at least =
40 people from Salem to Eugene that my folks knew about came to the yard =
over the next three weeks to see the mocker. Most thought that it was =
pretty darned neat to be able to see the critter in the mid-Willamette =
valley; the bird was certainly unconcerned about all the human activity =
in the neighborhood... it being a mockingbird and all.

I got a half-dozen hard-core birders, though, that chewed me out Royal =
for having touched the critter! Apparantly, the ABA or someone had some =
sort of listing rule that a bird that had been handled couldn't be =
listed, and by banding the mocker, I had "ruined" their tick for =
Mockingbird in Linn County, Oregon. My, my....

I learned from the experience, however. Either I won't band the rarity =
that blunders into my mist-net, or I won't tell the birding community if =
it'll bring down the rancor of the masses. Or, I could just let word =
out that that Pallas' Willow Warbler had been touched, and save folks a =
drive....

I can dream, can't I? :-)

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net