[mou] Documentation

[Peder Svingen]

Rick Hoyme has posted constructive commentary on the need for guidelines
on "the fine art of documentation" (borrowing a phrase from Ann Johnson,
who's article by the same name was reprinted in The Loon 61:163_165).
Guidelines for documentation are one of several initiatives that will be
considered by the MOU records committee (MOURC) during my tenure as Chair,
which started three weeks ago.
The database of Casual/Accidental species prepared by Karl Bardon (a
project involving many hundreds of hours of work over a period of six
years) is still being proofed and updated. Karl distributed a "beta
version" of this database to MOURC so that accurate information was
available when the committee determined species status, and annotated the
checklist for the first time. I was not a member of the committee when the
current checklist was developed, and can only guess at the many hours of
labor contributed by the volunteer members of MOURC, but IMHO the
annotations, layout, and wealth of information contained in this checklist
are most impressive! Kudos all around!
Another MOURC initiative is an extensive bibliography of identification
articles, which will be posted to the MOU website after the committee has
had a chance to review and comment on the document. The committee will
also be tasked to develop guidelines for documentation. In the meantime,
and in response to Rick's request for information on how to document a
rare bird, I would like to suggest the following resources:

Dittmann, D. L., and G. W. Lasley. 1992. How to document rare birds.
Birding 24:145_159. Available online at
<http://www.greglasley.net/document.html> or via the LOS website at
<http://www.losbird.org/dittman_lasley.htm>

Lynch, M. 1995. The importance of documenting birds. Bird Observer 23(5).
Available online at <http://massbird.org/marc/Documentation.htm>

Helpful hints on documentation from the Oklahoma Bird Records Committee
can be found online at <http://www.okbirds.org/how_to.html>

The Maryland Bird Records Committee has dedicated a page to the late
Claudia Wilds as a tribute to her identification and documentation skills
at <http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/rcdocument.html>

Mark Patterson has posted a step-by-step primer on writing convincing
details at <http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/details/details.html>

Wilds, C, and R. Hilton. 1992. Emerging from the silent majority:
documenting rarities. Maryland Birdlife 48:30_35. Available online at
<http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/rarities.html>

-- 
Peder H. Svingen - psvingen@d.umn.edu - Duluth, MN


On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Richard Hoyme wrote:

>
> This also goes to a criticism that I have heard many times of MOURC,
> mainly rejected submissions. I think that many of the rejections are not
> because the submitter didn't see the bird, but rather didn't write it up
> well enough. Just look at the minutes from the MOURC meetings. Many
> rejections are for poor write-ups. I believe that there are a lot of us
> birders that really don't know what to put on the form. What should we
> look for when viewing a casual or accidental?
> <SNIP>