[mou] Records committees et al.

[Chad Heins]

Hey birders,

I also think it is important to distinguish between a rejected documentation and an inaccurate identification.  Those two are not necessarily synonymous.  

It is possible to accurately identify a bird in the field but not include important fieldmarks in the documentation sent to the records committee (done it).  Rejection: my fault.

It is possible to accurately identify a bird in the field that is atypical for the species--maybe it has a patch of white or other color where it shouldn't.  Documentation of this individual can also be rejected (also happened to me) Rejection: the bird's fault.

I don't even want to talk about my attempt to document a Townsend's X Hermit Warbler seen in Wisconsin...I'm sure it was more painful for the records committee to read than it was for me to write (especially since my view of the bird was brief and I attempted to describe its song which was somewhere in between the parent species).  What a mess!

A records committee, unfortunately, is limited to the documentation that we produce; they cannot go out with us in the field and see what it is that we saw or heard.  They are responsible for looking at the facts we present and determining if the evidence supports the identification.  It is a formal process that probably should happen more frequently in informal gatherings.

Getting back to Pastor Al's original post: I don't think that I question myself enough in the field in a manner that a records committee would question me.  I don't think I'm likely to start questioning myself in this manner (I tend to identify on "jizz" first and fieldmarks second) and that is why it is even more important for those around me to ask those types of questions.  "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" The important thing to remember as the questioner is that the questionee is the one who SAW the bird.

Okay...got too long.

Happy birding!

Chad Heins
Mankato, MN

P.S.  Documentations tend to get better the more you do! :)


       
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