I was included in one, which I totally missed.  Not because I don't have a sense of humor...quite the contrary...but because I am cautious about clicking embedded links in emails.  My policy is if it's not from someone I know or is high priority, I don't click it.  I presumed it was a joke.

As for non-sighting related posts, I for one would enjoy that.  There is more to this, in my view, than listing, chasing, and profiteering.

Happy April all...as Kent Miller said to me today: "waterfowl out, land birds in."

Jon Cefus

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 1, 2014, at 6:36 PM, Gene Stauffer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Those who say there were no April Fool posts were not reading the posts very
> carefully. I suggest you go back and look at photos referenced in the posts.
> 
> Gene Stauffer
> Grove City
> 
> Because we have had a problem with delayed e-mails through Road Runner (Time
> Warner Cable) please send replies or new e-mails to [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Haans
> Petruschke
> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 5:48 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] Fwd: April fools posting
> 
> Thanks Joe, I agree
> 
> A few of points beyond curmudgeonly behavior on the part of some.
> 
> 1. A good April 1 post requires planning.  It cannot be done spur of the
> moment or else it ends up being something like reporting an Ivory-billed
> Peckerwood. Lame.
> 
> 2.  The person doing the post must have a high level of visibility and
> credibility in the community.  I don't really qualify anymore because I
> only post a handful of times a year.
> 
> 3. It must border on being believable, but, be a bit beyond.  What this is
> varies, but the idea is to just suck people in.  Make it just plausible
> enough that even experts will question it even though it is really a 1 in a
> billion chance of being real.
> 
> 4. It really helps if you have cooperation or collaboration.  A classic was
> when I posted a Boat-billed Heron at Shipman Pond and Joe Hammod
> photoshopped a picture which he posted as a confirmation of the sighting,
> having charted a helicopter to travel several hundred miles in 90 minutes
> after my report. Fun!
> 
> While I don't post much I do still read the list serve posts daily.  I
> think another reason for the lack of fun is the community has changed.  The
> Ohio Birds List Serve rarely has any interesting discussion as it did a
> decade ago, and if you do post a non sighting you get plenty of hate mail.
> Also the Ohio birding community has become quite divided or fictionalized
> in the past 4 years or so.  When it was a private entity run by VWF III,
> discussion and having fun was encouraged.  Now birding has become, for
> some, an economic interest and so nothing which might discourage interest
> is in any way received without protest.
> 
> Finally a whole lot of the bird related discussion had migrated to
> Facebook.  We have some excellent groups here in Ohio and our state is on
> the leading edge of this.  I was hoping to see something there.  I would
> have done something myself but did not have time because I'm in the middle
> of transferring computers.
> 
> Haans
> 
> 
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 5:17 PM, Joe Faulkner <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> 
>> Fellow birders with and without a sense of humor,
>> 
>>     It appears that a reasonably harmless tradition on this list serve
> has
>> been stomped to death like a wounded pigeon on a New York side walk.  I
>> speak, of course, of the bazaar sightings and events often posted on April
>> 1st by some of the veteran  birders on this list serve.  I personally
>> thought they were fun, and for the most part, quite harmless.  If a few
>> beginning and apparently gullible birders got fooled and chased something
>> that wasn't there, then too bad.  That's what April Fools Day is all
> about.
>> I fooled several of you and my good friend Rick Taylor into believing
> that
>> my dog was eaten by a Great Horned Owl.  He stayed up all night trying to
>> figure out how to keep me from killing the owl, and called me a very bad
>> name when he found out the truth.  I got many sympathy emails about that
>> dog.  Rick and I are still friends, and the dog is fine.
>>     Please note that the well regarded NPR does a April Fools day story
>> every year, that fools a lot of people, including me.  Two of my birding
>> colleagues have already told me that they looked for April fools posts
>> today, and were disappointed when they didn't find any.
>>     As I recall the composition of this group, we are all mature (mostly)
>> adults(mostly) who can take a joke (mostly).  So, I am personally hoping
>> that next April 1, there will be a few more bazaar sightings and bazaar
>> events that fool a few gullible people.  If they are beginning birders,
>> they would still have access to calendars , and would know, just like the
>> rest of us, that it is April Fools Day.
>> 
>> Joe in the woods
>> Somerset, Ohio
>> Perry County
>> 
>>  By the way, I found a NESTING SNOWY OWL at the Perry County Wilds, but
>> chose not to post it.   Didn't want anyone driving down here and
> disturbing
>> the nesting owl.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________________________________
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