[mou] [mnbird] help

[Steve Weston]

Hi Scott,

thanks for taking the giant step of sharing your sightings with us.  i know it can take a good dose of bravery to share, especially the sightings that would be out of the ordinary or of uncertain ID.   but, I am sure that good birds get missed every year because more timid souls are unable to find the courage to take the risk of exposure of imperfect ID skills.  Do not be afraid to share your tenuous ID's.

Some things to remember:

Always identify where you are seeing the birds.  A good bird in one part of the state can be an ordinary bird at the same time of year in another part of the state.  For example, the Lark Bunting is much more likely to be found in the western edge of the state than in the Metro.  That is not to say that we haven't seen it here.  I remember see one by the Minneapolis Airport in the fall several years ago that was seen by many.

A report of a Lark Bunting is incomplete information.  If you look in the field guide, you will see that the Lark Bunting can be seen in two completely unsimilar plumages.  A description of the bird will help not only your ID and observation skill development, it will also help us to suggest alternative ID's that you may or may not have considered.  And, while finding a Lark Bunting in the metro area now may be highly unlikely, finding a male breeding plumage Lark Bunting may be beyond the relm of possibilities as the Lark bunting may molt out of breeking plumage before they leave their nesting area.  (I do not know the timing of their molt.)

A word of encouragement.  A probable Green-breasted Mango Hummingbird is being seen in Wisconsin at this time.  There are very few records of this bird in the United States and the ID is still uncertain.  This bird has been around for several weeks and only when an experienced birder arrived to view the unknown hummingbird was the ID  proposed.  We would have all been deprived of the opportunity to view this bird in the US, if the homeowner had been afraid to share this find.

Every birder should realize that we have an incomprable resourse unavailable in any other state.  Check out the maps at the MOU website.  They tell where in the state any bird that has been found has been seen.  http://moumn.org/cgi-bin/occurrence.pl?group=ducks&season=all

again, thanks for sharing.  I will send you more comments on the birds you found when I get back home tonight.

Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2 at comcast.net




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: scott henkemeyer 
  To: mnbird at lists.mnbird.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 5:06 PM
  Subject: [mnbird] help


  The following birds were seen near st.cloud.they were I.D by sight only.problem is if the birds were ID correctly they were all out of their range.

  great kiskadee

  dark eyed junco

  franklins gull

  lark bunting

  any comments would be a great help


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