I gave up chasing rarities over a decade ago, for a variety of reasons.
  My brother and I did a lot of traveling to see as many US species as
we could in those old days, and only recently, following his retirement
in Florida, has Pete fanned the coals of this weird ambition. My wife
and I just returned from Florida, having visiting him and his wife Lucy,
and he told me they had a strange western vagrant down in Key Largo, a
sulphur-bellied flycatcher. Many will recognize this as a fairly common
nesting species in southeastern AZ, but I have never birded there during
its brief summer presence, when it arrives very late in the spring. Mind
you, I've seen some real rarities in AZ--blue mockingbird, crane hawk,
social and piratic flycatchers come to mind as examples--but even in my
retirement from listing the lack of this numerous species was nagging,
and here was a chance to see one on the cheap.
        We spent the afternoon in Key Largo seeking the sulphur-bellied,
without luck. Best sighting--but fairly routine there--was probably the
resident pair of mangrove cuckoos, and after a seafood lunch we returned
north the day before yesterday. Laura and I headed to Ohio the next day.
Today I got a call from Pete, who was looking at a bird in Ft.
Lauderdale--a variegated flycatcher, a bona-fide US rarity seen by many
in a city Laura and I had passed through just the day before yesterday
on our way home. Yikes.
        Described odd bird occurrences can be of genuine interest to
individuals--nice if you want to enlarge your list, but mostly
meaningless to science, or anyone else. Last year the Ohio Records
Committee unanimously validated photographic evidence of a crested
caracara in Ohio; I suspect no readers of this post saw the bird, but
there is an important difference between listing for one and learning
for many.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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