Tweeters,

As most of you know, in the past I've led many bird walks around Green Lake, Seattle.
Many times someone would approach and interrupt whatever was going on with an opening salvo like: "Question!"
Often these identification challenges were interesting and not impossible. Occasionally though you get someone who is so eager to have seen something interesting; they loose sight of reality.
To wit: the gentleman who stops me and tells me he's seen a crane at the lake the other day in late-February (for non-Seattleites; a very unlikely scenario. Green Lake is in the middle of the city and Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) although locally abundant in migration, are rare in winter on the west side of Washington). So while not impossible, it's also not likely and definitely noteworthy. I'd never seen one at the lake in more than twenty years of frequent -almost daily- visits. So I ask some questions. As the conversation goes on the observer is gradually divulging more and more field marks. Those, to me, all add up to Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) a regular year-round at the lake. No mention of red on the head, but the long feathers on the breast and head were mentioned.
I asked if it could have been a Great Blue Heron, to which the indignant reply was "no, I know my birds!"
I pulled out my dog-eared National Geographic field guide and thumbed through it. Showed the plate with the cranes and asked if it was on that page. "No."
Looked up the heron page with the Great Blue Heron and he immediately pointed at the Great Blue Heron image. "That's it!"
"Well, I'm sorry, but that's a Great Blue Heron. Nice observation. I always like seeing them......" To which his reply was: "Your book is wrong."
I guess some people simply won't listen to reason once their minds are made up.

Still chuckling at the memory of the incident.

Martin Muller, Seattle