From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Mon Oct 13 19:00:28 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9E1vJI6009891 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:57:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net (albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.120]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h9E1u6ZP009840 for <[[email protected]]>; Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:56:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-38lc0ir.dialup.mindspring.com ([209.86.2.91] helo=birdnutz.com) by albatross.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1A9EPr-0007GC-00; Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:56:03 -0700 Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 18:59:23 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v552) To: South Bay Birders <[[email protected]]> From: Les Chibana <[[email protected]]> In-Reply-To: <[[email protected]]> Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552) Cc: Rick Fournier <[[email protected]]> Subject: [SBB] Rufous backed robin, post(?)script X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Since there's a bit of a lull in local bird reports.... While leading a Palo Alto Baylands Birding class trip to the Carmel River and the Monterey area on Sunday, we crossed paths with Rick Fournier, a very experienced birder from the Moss Landing area. Rick is a docent at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve and was notified within 20 minutes of the Rufous-backed Robin sighting report. He did go to the Reserve immediately to look for the bird but was unable to find it. He did see lots of American Robins. He was also notified of a sighting of the same species on the following(?) day at a nearby home, which he also checked out and found only American Robins. It was nice that Rick lives so close and bothered to check and not just discredit the sightings outright. Looking over the posts about this sighting, it appears that Russell Sheehan, the person who reported the sighting, is from out of the area (according to Janna Pauser's note "British chaps birding.... at various locations in the Bay Area for five days"). He may not have been aware of all of the email lists appropriate for such rare sightings, or about the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC) and their desire for a certain level of documentation for such rarities. He seemed aware enough that this species is highly unlikely for our neck of the woods. I've sent him a note encouraging him to submit a report at the CBRC website report page. I'm glad that Bob Reiling posted his thoughts on reporting rare birds to this list even if one is not confident of a sighting. I feel that this is the right attitude to have in our birding community and it's one way to learn more. And, after all, that's what the list is for, sharing and learning. The history of this list seems to show that it does not suffer very much from careless reporting. We have to also remember that this medium, email, can be very difficult to control, or grasp, for "tone of voice" or someone's attitude. Try to be careful about how you write or read a message. Feathers can be ruffled too easily. But it's been said before and I'll repeat it, it's amazing that the SBB list has maintained such a high quality of communication for so long with no flame wars. Let's keep it up! Les Chibana, Palo Alto _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]