"Hookum Pate?!?? Oh my, oh my god!!

I can only hope this is an April Fool's Day joke which indeed it does
kinda sound. Sounds like it, emphatically yes, reads like it's for real and
not a joke. See: _ABA Blog_ (http://blog.aba.org/) entry for today, April
1, 2012 by Ted Floyd. I'm sure those of you who keep checklists, spend huge
sums for the latest in field guides and assorted birding software to
wrestle with the constant tinkering, changing, and reordering in bird taxonomy
and checklists and how it all so fouls up your system of organizing things,
computerized or not, might find this an interesting read. If this is a
joke, then I've been duped once again and sorry to the bearer of false
alarms. Just read through the blog entry to find out what "Hookum Pate" is all
about in case you don't know already. This is kind of why I've pretty much
given up on birding and settled in to just enjoying watching the wind blow,
the rain fall, and the grass grow, all of which so much easier to keep up
with and still maintain some decorum of sanity. And who knows, me be
patient long enough, I might see Hookum himself waddle out from the underbrush.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA