Thank goodness the Ivory Billed was reported and believed. I am sure most of us have given up reporting even the most unmistakable birds because of the instant scorn poured on our heads! We have seen, for example, a fork-tailed flycatcher in KS after a tremendous wind storm (Sibley shows one green dot around Quiver but KS and Cornell don't believe us), a yellow wagtail in Denali, AK (a hypothetical record is on the books and it is in the area), a pair of Dovekie in Two Harbors, MN in an irruption year where there was a pair of harlequin duck (one dead Dovekie already on record at Rice Lake, MN) and even an ivory billed 30 years ago at a location we do not reveal (canoeing in very deep woods). I can understand we have to be careful about accepting reports from enthusiastic amateurs, but the birds do not read the books, and a first reaction to an unusual sighting does not need to be so crushing, and instantly rejecting. A "how interesting" followed by gentle probing of bona fides (i.e., experience of the observer) may lead more of us to bother reporting rare sightings of especially obvious ID's like Fork-tailed flycatchers (especially when it was sitting next to several scissor-tails and a shrike, of all things). Ralph Brinkhurst, Lebanon, Wilson Co. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================