The following is a piece of advice we found of interest yesterday, from a post to the "BRDBRAINS LISTSERV" in Florida.

Bob and Denise Lane / Wintering in Clearwater, Florida

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Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 23:02:56 -0500 
From: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: [BRDBRAIN] GBBC this weekend 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Hi, 
Earlier today Rex Rowan sent out a note to his Alachua list regarding 
the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. He offered a friendly word 
of advice that those watching e-Bird may want to be on the lookout for 
possibly false reports due to over enthusiastic folks reporting birds 
not likely to be here. It reminded me of an event from some years back. 
About 15 years ago I got a call from our then chapter president, Lois 
Robinson, asking if I'd go look at a video a man had called her about. 
He lived in one of the older subdivisions here in Daytona Beach and the 
Chevrolet dealer, whose property abutted the edge of this neighborhood, 
was planning on expanding his car lot. The little home owner's 
association was feeling overpowered. Lo and behold, it turned out that 
this guy had not only Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in his yard but an 
Ivory-billed too. These endangered species were sure to save the day 
for the home owner's association. Lois had tried to explain that this 
was extremely unlikely but he was adamant. I arranged to meet him at 
his house and when I arrived he invited me in. He turned on his TV and 
plugged in his VHS tape. He hit the fast forward button and we watched 
until the first bird appeared on the screen hanging on the side of a 
large oak in the backyard. It was clearly a Pileated Woodpecker. I 
asked him to pause the tape and then I opened a copy of the old 
Peterson guide I had with me. I showed him the differences in the book 
between PIWO and IBWO and pointed out why the bird on the screen was 
not an IBWO. He was reluctant to admit that he had been mistaken but 
eventually seemed to accept the obvious. He said then that he was sure 
of the ID of the other bird. He hit the fast forward button again and 
soon we were looking at a nice male Downy Woodpecker hanging on the 
side of his feeder. You could even hear the bird's calls just before it 
flew into view. I again asked him to pause the tape and I pointed out 
why his bird was not a RCWO since it lacked the large white cheek patch 
and had a different feather pattern on its back. He was throughly 
deflated at this point. We walked outside and as I walked out toward my 
car he thanked me for coming over. Two days later the president of the 
home owners association called Lois again and said they wanted a second 
opinion. 
I'll be doing the Atlantic Coast Shorebird Count tomorrow and 
watching my backyard on Saturday. Have a good weekend all!
David Hartgrove 
Conservation Chair/Pelican Editor, 
Halifax River Audubon 
Daytona Beach, FL 
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