[mou] Birders helping other birders

[Richard Wood]

Hi all,

At the risk of getting someone from another planet offering me advice, I'm going to explain what I was REALLY asking.

I saw a bird in my back yard a while back, and in my mind, it was either one of two species, based upon how it looked to me.  So, after I saw it and attempted to binoc it, only to see it fly under our deck, I consulted several of my field guides that I use regularly.  I looked up both species and looked at both species range maps for the Minnesota are (I say Minnesota area because the range maps in field guides are so small).  

I then thought that perhaps the data that made up the range map in my field guide isn't right for Minnesota (that was what birders in Maryland have taught me), so I figured I would look at the seasonal data for the two species on the Minnesota OU website (moumn.org).

The thought then occurred to me that if I did use this method to "confirm" my ID, that I might get the ire of the locals if I reported my
 sighting and stated that I used the MOU data.  So, I figured why not ask the locals and see what they thought.

I would think that it would be pretty obvious that if someone had a picture or more information to give to others, that they would be able to ID the bird themselves.  Instead of getting what I was hoping to get, I wound up getting advice from everyone and his brother on how to be a better birder, how to report bird sightings, what books to read, etc.  I posted the information I did, which was based on the look that I had, because I felt that I had a good idea of the posibilities, otherwise, I would have posted more information.   Some of you thought I didn't know that I should be more "complete"; well, that was all I had.  I saw enough to rule out all but two species in the US, I would think that should be enough.

And I don't think that I AM overly sensitive to this attempt at helping me (you should have been at my thesis defense when a member of my committee told me that a method that I had used was incorrect, when it turned out that the questioner was incorrect, and you would have seen how much I can handle), or most other things, for that matter, and I propose that perhaps the answerers aren't answering in the right ways that are truly helpful.  They may think they are being helpful, but they are not.  I ask a simple question and I get treated like I'm a beginner; I use what
 supposedly "better birders" than me have taught me, and I get told that's wrong.  I get told not to be so sensitive about criticism of sightings and to, "get over your bad experiences with BRC's"; well, you've obviously never had someone tell you that you didn't see a certain bird in a certain place, only to have that person go and see the same bird in the EXACT same place a year later, and get patted on the back for getting a "state first".

I'm sorry that some of you take my posts as "tirades", and I'm also sorry that some of you think you're helping me, when in actuality, you are not.  I'm not saying I couldn't use help birding, but the way that it's done is lacking something.

In my "career" up until this point, I've done a lot of teaching of college students, and I will say that I am not the best at it, which is probably why I have no wantings to go into academia.  That being said, I think that I can judge when someone is a good helper and when someone isn't a good helper.  I've had teachers tell me a book to look stuff up in when I ask a question, and to me, that isn't good teaching.  I'll give you an example that I have carried with me for over 30 years.  When I was in high school, taking chemistry, someone asked the teacher what the value of Avogadro's Number was.  Instead of giving the student the value (6.022 x 10^23) , he said, "Look it up in your text...".  To me, he might have just as well said, "Go away and leave me alone...".  I guess the bottom line is, just because someone asks a question, and you give a response, you aren't always helping that person to learn something.

If all this is "helping me", I wonder how many birders are driven away by
this, because I'm about to quit.  I didn't post for quite awhile
because birding had lost a lot of the fun for me, and I had gotten to a
point where I was ready to come back and bird, now I'm not so sure.

Happy Holidays,
Richard

 
Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
Hastings, MN
rwoodphd at yahoo.com





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