Good questions. Birding has various approaches. My main approach is to play the ABA listing game. Like all games it has rules so players can compete fairly, all on the same page. The rules are subject to change, and some players may find them arbitrary, but they are like a tennis net, an essential part of the game. Want to change the rules? Fine, ask the ABA to change the rules. Here are the current rules: http://www.aba.org/bigday/rules.pdf. Here is the current list: http://www.aba.org/checklist/abachecklist.pdf So far this sounds pretty simple. But to me there is one murky area: some of the birds on the ABA list can be counted only in certain places. I would like the list to have footnotes for these species, to clarify any geographic conditions. Does this game have anything to do with bird appreciation or ornithology? Probably, but mainly it is a competitive game. I think its kind of fun.
Tom Wilberding Boulder, Colorado On May 11, 9:36 am, Ira Sanders <[email protected]> wrote: > While we are on the subject of exotics, let us not forget about vagrants > like: Red-faced Warbler (was that a cage bird?), Tropical Parula, > Long-billed Thrasher, the Sun Bittern in New Mexico, and what about Mute > Swan in Colorado. There was a juvenile at Cherry Creek that was entirely > pooh-poohed from the moment it showed up. While we are at it, what about > the Baikal Teal. > > If the standard is "how did it get here" and of course the answer is "I > don't know", then how is anything far out of range ever accepted. > > Remember when "lumping" was the order of the day that has now shifted to > "splitting"? I think it's time for an equally major shift in vagrant > records from "show it's wild" to "prove to me it's not". "I don't know how > it got here" or as they say at BRC's, "origin unknown" is no longer a valid > copout. > > Ira Sanders > > Golden, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
