Hi Tweets,

Ray Korpi writes:

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Kyle Hamish Elliott wrote:
>> >Swainson's Thrush 2 (she tells me they were definitely Swainson's, no red
>> >tail and didn't bob tail; but as I don't know (xxxxxxx) very well, I'm not
>> >sure how experienced she is)

>On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Michael Price wrote:
>> I'm not sure that doubting the credibility of someone's skills in public is
>> the best of manners, Kyle; I'm sure there are more tactful ways to handle
>> your reservations about the validity of someone's sightings.

>While I would generally agree with what Michael notes here, there are
>birds like Swainson's Thrush and House Wren whose occurrence in our
>environs in the winter is suspect. Some caution should be taken.

Couldn't agree more, Ray, about non-obvious Catharus-genus thrush ID in or
out of winter; that may be one of the toughest October-to-April calls to be
made away from a mistnet, and I think Kyle's noncommittment to the ID was
proper.

As expressed, though, not only was it was a non-sequitur: moving without a
bridge from reported field marks to doubts of her legitimacy as a reporter
rather than discussing the difficulties of ID and the need for caution, but
he expressed those doubts of a birder's skills and therefore her credibility
before a large public audience, and *named* her.

I can guarantee that if anyone were to do something that unprofessional to
me, by design or inadvertency, I would insist on an equally public apology
before that person *ever* saw another record from me.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)