Fifteen years ago, I began as a solo birder - loved to hike since early years, started noticing birds (only took me 20+ years), someone gave me an old pair of binoculars, bought an inexpensive field guide, you know the story - I was hooked.
Then I learned about listservs & associations (initially Wisbirdn & WSO) and a whole new world opened up. People did this together! They helped each other, gathered for field trips, provided tips, gentle correction, sometimes a learned body slam - each step pushed me farther up and farther in. But I picked up a bad ID habit or two along the way (probably during my solo time), and, frankly, would like to shed them. First, the positives - my ear is relatively strong (some relearning each spring), and I tend to recognize behavior/shape/color characteristics easily - have decent "jizz" recognition skills. But when it comes to documentation - when it comes to looking at the "component pieces", and either mentally or visually recording them for future recollection & recording - I struggle. I tend to fasten on a characteristic or two (song or primary field mark), and miss the details that records committees & the like need. Classic example: Eurasian Wigeon that visited a local pond - I noted the head and crown stripe color - compared the bird to Sibley's hybrid pictures - but then couldn't put good enough documentation together to convince others - which I take responsibility for (not blaming records committees, they have a thankless enough important job as it is). (This is actually reflective of a greater whole - I can remember many details from a marital counseling or mediation situation - but not wall colors in my church.) I was asked to document a couple of county oddities recently, and realized that my ID of them was based on 1-2 aspects, not a composite picture. Am I convinced that I correctly identified them? Certainly! Can I communicate this well to our birding community? Probably not. Frustrating (for them & me). Feel a little like Kenn Kaufman a few years back, who confessed that he couldn't describe a BC Chickadee adequately. So, some relearning and retooling is called for. Thoughts and suggestions gladly welcomed. Transparent (at least opaque) in Princeton, Al Schirmacher Mille Lacs & Sherburne Counties
