Hey all-

I just caught on to this issue, and I want to weigh in a little. First off,
I find it unfortunate that we birders sometimes respond to rarities by
saying "impossible" and invoking human intervention. In my opinion, this
should require just as much proof of likelihood as any other mechanism -
that is to say a demonstration that this has happened to verdins before.
Otherwise we're in trouble, because dangit, any rarity could be assisted.
There's no test, absolutely no way you'd be able to tell the difference, and
you run the risk of throwing the baby out the third-story window with the
bathwater. The prior vagrancy patterns of a species, or especially LACK
thereof, cannot be used to determine if a species was assisted, because the
logic is circular. You would never have any accepted records of vagrancy
anywhere, because you'd never be able to establish any pattern of vagrancy,
because you'd be ignoring real events. Once a bird is out of its range, esp.
a sedentary species, anything could happen, no? There's nothing, no
migratory instinct, to guide it back. It may take one funny little twist in
that bird's brain to send it spiraling to WA.

Jesse Ellis (former of Seattle)



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Jesse Ellis
Madison, Dane Co, WI
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