Hi all, This is a two part post. The first part is meant to share some details on the American White Pelican reported (via eBird) at Hoover Reservoir earlier this week -- it sounds legit! Birders near Hoover or any of the large bodies of water near there or to the north should definitely be on the look out for this bird! Second, I wanted to share a few tips for reporting rarities for anyone who ever finds themselves asking whether or not to report a rare bird out of concern that they'll be doubted, criticized, publicly shamed and/or tarred and feathered for not being a world class birder. The advice is simply meant to help provide a better understanding of what information is REALLY important to include with such reports, so you can provide that information up front and ward of a barrage of unexpected questions. ;) #1 -- Hoover Reservoir American White Pelican The bird was reported by two separate parties earlier this week (via eBird checklist submissions) however both included minimal details describing the observation. This left some of us scratching our heads as to whether or not there really was a pelican at Hoover. I asked around and heard back from a couple of other birders who visited the area around the time of each report -- including one who went out searching for the pelican after each reported observation -- and all of them found nothing but a Mute Swan. After getting in touch with one observer (Craig Flockerzie, from Preservation Parks, a birder with 20 years of experience under his belt) he shared the following details: "[While watching the previously reported Black-crowned Night Heron along Oxbow Rd.] I was approached by another birder who asked me if I'd ever seen an American White Pelican. He said that he had seen it just off of the east side of the island. I walked with him back to where he saw it and it had moved about 3/4 of the way across the reservoir to the northeast. We still got a really good look at it through his spotting scope. I returned to Oxbow yesterday afternoon (in the wind and rain) and scanned that section of the reservoir to try to relocate it. Looking to the southeast, I noticed a large white bird to the south of the bridge on Sunbury Rd. that looked like it could have been the Pelican. Of course by the time I got back to my truck and drove to the boat launch south of the bridge, it had disappeared. I searched for around 2 hours with no luck. [Friday] I took my wife (and good luck charm) with me and we came across another birder with a spotting scope who was searching for the Pelican. He spotted it northeast of Oxbow Island close to the eastern shoreline. All 3 of us got a really good look through the scope. Jen and I then drove up to Weise Rd. and walked down the paved trail to the first bench. From that location we looked almost due east and watched the Pelican as it was swimming to the south." Craig went on to point out that the bird was "100% ... not a Mute Swan" and that the bird (and it's big orange bill) was clearly seen. He also noted that at least one of the other observers present had given up on reporting what he finds while birding, so that individual had no real interest in reporting the bird. That brings me to the second part of this post... #2 -- Tips for reporting rare birds. As many of you know, your reports to this email list and elsewhere (ebird, the Birding Ohio facebook group, etc.) are invaluable contributions to the birding community. Among other things, sharing our observations is how we alert others to our findings and those reports often wind up as part of the "official" natural history record of birds in Ohio. This last fact means that some of those reports need to be reasonably well documented. A common reason some stop sharing their "good" reports (or hesitate to do so), is a history of being put off (often unintentioally) by more experienced birders digging for further details. I'm not implying this is the case of the individual mentioned above, but that situation did prompt me to mention this here. Often, this bad experience comes in the form of an unexpected barrage of uncomfortably critical questioning following the report of a rare or uncommon bird. I don't want to focus on who if anyone is at fault here, because frankly it's not worth worrying about a few bad apples. Instead, our time is better spent focusing on what we can do as the reporting party to keep those bad apples from chiming in to begin with. So to that end, here's some advice for reporting rare or uncommon birds (including any and all birds you have to "Confirm" in eBird) while avoiding a lot of follow-up questions. *Tip #1 -- Describe the bird, but without making an ID.* Just enough to get across what it was that you saw or heard. Other birders will do two things with this information: evaluate whether or not the description matches the forthcoming ID, and (like it or not) they'll size up your experience level. You can use this second fact to your advantage! If you know fancy terminology for feathers or other field marks, use it. If you've seen the species before or not, say so. If you saw the bird(s) clearly in good light from 10 feet away, or briefly in bad light, say that too. Good rule of thumb: too much detail isn't enough, so if you have more, include it! :) *Tip #2 -- After describing the details of the observation, then discuss how you came to the stated ID.* Separating out the observation details from the mental process of making an ID will go a long way to answering the kinds of questions others might otherwise ask. It also helps to include mention of any other species you ruled out, as this also helps. *Tip #3 -- Call for backup! If you can, get the word out ASAP!* If other birders can arrive and refind your rarity, maybe photograph it, etc. then you'll have nothing to worry about ;) *Tip #4 -- Practice documenting rare birds by documenting common birds.* Here is a quick and easy exercise: take a copy of the OOS Rare Bird Report Form (click the "document form" link at http://www.ohiobirds.org/site/committee/about.php) and fill it out for some really common birds. This can give you an excellent sense of what information people might be interested in, and thus things to note next time you encounter a local rarity. :) Good birding, Paul Hurtado ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the Birding Ohio group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BirdingOhio/ ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. 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