Subject: Descriptions by non-birders
Date: Nov 9 20:03:54 2001
From: Wes Jansen - nikonf100d at yahoo.com


We get people in our store with incredible sightings
all the time. One was of a giant "warbler" which I
finally deduced was a Varied Thrush. Some people
think of Common Yellowthroats as Yellow-Breasted
Chats; but that's actually understandable. The good
thing is they're attempting an ID, and that can often
lead to a sale of a field guide. We all have to start
somewhere!
--- Diane Yorgason-Quinn <avosetta at hotmail.com> wrote:
> My favorite description from a non-birder was when
> my late mother-in-law
> thought she had successfully ID'd a flock of 30
> Yellow-Breasted Chats in her
> yard, thanks to the bird book I had given her.
> Maybe they were Cedar
> Waxwings, but who knows? Or maybe she was making
> birding history, but no
> one would believe her...
>
> Diane Yorgason-Quinn
> Gig Harbor, WA
> Avosetta at hotmail.com
>
>
> >The all-time champ was always my mom, though. She
> would describe things
> >that would drive an avian anatomist round the bend.
> One in particular
> >proved impossible to imagine, let alone predict
> what it might have been.
> >"It was sort of like a duck, with feet like a
> pigeon, only it was about the
> >size of a goose, with mostly brown on the head. It
> had a roundish red tail
> >and a small crest. I think it might have been some
> kind of woodpecker."
> >After all the years I have birded, I now realize I
> have missed a wonderful
> >opportunity. I should have started a special
> journal to record all of
> >these descriptions (mom's and others'). Then I
> could have developed a key
> >to identifying birds based on these descriptions by
> folks who notice things
> >that we seem to miss.
> >
> >Good birding,
> >
> >Gary Bletsch
>
>
>
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>


=====
Wes and Rosi Jansen
Fine Feathered Friends
603 Morris St.
P.O. Box 875
LaConner, WA 98257
(360)466-5002

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