I'd like to thank and commend Kathi Hutton for her public service
announcement this morning.

To some extent, I can understand the feelings of those who miss the "good
old days" of April Fools posts (and I liked Joe Faulkner's post about the
cormorants on Clouse Lake). There was a time when serious birders made up a
small clique, and they communicated only among themselves. If they made fun
of beginning birders, no one heard them doing it - so even if they were
being jerks, no real harm was done.

In the past, my birding friends and I used to play outrageous practical
jokes on each other - not just on April 1st, but throughout the year. I got
some zingers in, and I got seriously pranked myself, and it was all in good
fun. But this stuff just happened among friends who knew each other well,
and it didn't affect anyone else.

Pranks on the internet are different. Apparently some people don't realize
this, but when you post on the Ohio-Birds listserve, your words don't just
go out to hundreds of listserve subscribers that you've never met. Your
post can be seen by literally anyone in the world who has an internet
connection.

And just as communication has been changed in a fundamental way, the
birding community also has been changing. More and more people are taking
up birding, and more of them are taking it up independently, connecting
mainly online rather than through face-to-face interactions with other
birders. It's wonderful to see the eagerness and excitement of these new
birders. But these are the people who are most likely to be fooled by one
of these bogus rare bird reports. Contrary to what someone else said in
this thread, beginning birders are not "true fools" - they are just people
who are new to the subject.

Birds and their habitats face all kinds of threats today, and for the sake
of conservation efforts, birds need all the friends they can get. We should
be doing everything we can to encourage new birders, not making them the
target for pranks. Joking is fine among friends, but when dealing with
strangers, I agree with Deborah Smith that I'd rather err on the side of
kindness.

Special kudos to Alex Eberts for weighing in to support Kathi's position.
Alex is one of the "Rogue Birders" - a group of young guys who are very
sharp, very avid, very rapidly developing major expertise, and clearly
having big fun with birding. No one could accuse them of being humorless!
(Lots of other things, maybe, but not humorless!)

For those who miss the old days when birding was an activity for a small
in-crowd, there are ways to set up online discussion groups that are
private. But when posting things in a completely public forum, let's try to
do what is best for the whole birding community, and thus ultimately for
the birds as well.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 7:09 AM, Kathi Hutton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Traditionally, someone usually takes advantage of the date to post some
> rare, unusual, or even mythical bird sighting on April 1st. Fair warning:
> If something sounds too good to be true today, don't get in your car and
> start driving.
>
> No foolin'
> Kathi
>
> Sent from iVan II, my iPhone
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