The Ohio Bird Records Committee met on Sunday, April 27. Tom Kemp
reported that he was not able to devote the time that would be necessary
to continue as Secretary of the Committee, and I was elected to replace
him. I already knew that Tom has done a great job as Secretary; but in
the few days that I have had to look over what is involved, my
admiration for his efforts has increased tremendously. I only hope that
I can come close to what he has done to forward the Committee's business.

Tom will write up all of the Committee's recent decisions for an
upcoming issue of The Ohio Cardinal. But I wanted to give you a quick
update on a couple of matters. First, Rob Harlan and Craig Caldwell were
elected to replace outgoing Committee members Tom Hissong and Ben
Morrison. Tom and Ben have donated a significant amount of time and
effort, and we sincerely thank them.

Second, we removed three species from the review list: Ross's Goose,
Cackling Goose, and Rufous Hummingbird. While each of these species has
now been confirmed often enough that they no longer need to be
documented, birders should be aware that they continue to present
identification challenges.

Not every small Snow Goose is a Ross's Goose. Beware - hybrids are out
there; and as the populations of both species have exploded, so too have
the numbers of hybrids.

The situation is even more complicated when it comes to small
white-cheeked geese. PLEASE don't assume that because you have found a
small Canada Goose, it must be a Cackling Goose. You should ask
yourself, why isn't it the parvipes subspecies of Canada Goose? Frankly,
if you don't know what 'parvipes' means, then you really shouldn't be
counting Cackling on your list. But this isn't the time or place to get
into an ID discussion - just be aware that you ahould educate yourself
before you make that call. While the Committee certainly doesn't need,
or want, documentation of Canada Goose, we would very much like to
receive detailed reports of small non-Cackling geese. There is a
definite possibility that this complex will get further splits in the
future.

Finally, hummingbirds. I am old enough to remember that only one species
of hummingbird could be found in Ohio. Then we learned that late fall
hummingbirds were likely to be Rufous. Now we know that several species
are possible. That reddish-looking November hummer might not be a Rufous
- look at it closely, hopefully get some photos, and you could become
famous as the first person to document an Ohio Allen's.

--
--
Ned Keller
[log in to unmask]

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]