Ebird offersthe option of posting anonymously. When someone choses this
option that person's postings will be listed as "Anonymous Birdger".
Therefore all the "Anonymous Birder" lists need not be the same person,
just from people who have chosen to post their lists privately, so the fact
that postings are fairly fair apart isn't relevant. The following location
provides more information from ebird:

<goog_1098650733>
http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1006833-data-privacy?b_id=1928


Whether these particular sightings are spoofs, misidentified birds, or
actual sightings is anyone's guess.

Michael



On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 11:43 AM, Barbara Deihl <barbdeihl at comcast.net>
wrote:

> There have been several sightings posted on eBird and perhaps on Tweeters,
> by "Anonymous eBirder" and another anonymosity with a similar moniker. The
> most recent questionable reports include one on a Great Gray Owl out on SR
> 530 and yesterday's posts and pics of a supposed Indigo Bunting - both of
> these came in on eBird alerts from Snohomish Co. with little or no
> confirmatory sightings, or, in the case of this Bunting, high-level
> description of the bird. And Anonymous eBirder has sometimes posted 'rare'
> sightings from places fairly far apart from each other, on the same day.
> This all prompts me to suspect spoofing, which, I hear, is not something
> foreign to either list. But, hey, it's neither April Fool's Day (yet) nor
> very funny, either of which would be, and also has been, well-appreciated,
> at least on Tweeters, back when birders could enjoy more tail-pulling. I
> can see now why someone might get off on sending ardent chasers off on wild
> goose chases, just for the power of it all or in order to get a bunch of
> vehicles parked in one place, with lots of pricey optics available for the
> "Smash+Grab".
> I'm not sure why anyone would wish to share sightings anonymously in the
> first place...
> If any of you have any thoughts as to whether or not to believe these
> folks or to follow any of their sightings or location directions, or any
> other related thoughts, please advise, either just me personally or the
> Tweeterage at large.
> Thanks.
>
>
> Barb Deihl
> Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
> barbdeihl
>
>
> "just a birding fool in my little patch paradise" -
> (anonymous)_______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>
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