Hi Tweets,

Andy Stepniewski writes:

>The folks at National Geographic must not of heard of the decision by the
>BC Committee [to not admit the Xhummer to the BC List--mp], as the new 3rd
edition field guide clearly states this hummer is a vagrant to BC.

Proof that even the National Geographic Society---which has become quite
good at producing decent field guides---can stray outside its field of
expertise (bird ID) and fall into one, some or all of the following errors
of courtesy, process or judgement:

A.)
not paying the local rarities committee the elementary politeness of
bothering to pick up the phone to find out what the committee's final
decision was;

B).
making the mistake of counting chickens before they hatch, assuming that the
assessment process on this species was merely perfunctory;

C.)
mistaking, as many twitchers clearly did, the wish for it to be countable as
a BC/North American species for the reality (known in philosophy by the
famous phrase, 'I want, therefore it is');

D.)
decide it knows best, and the local rarities committee can just piss off.

Time will tell which of these little piles the National G has stepped in.
Having more experience with large organsations and their capacity to admit
their imperfections than is healthy, I fully expect the National G to walk
on, pretending it has nothing but diamonds on the soles of its shoes.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net