Ohio birding community, I enjoy the well-considered sort of April Fool's prank described by Haans, below. I recall a few gems! I don't need to look very far to find more of them. Not long ago, Ohio Birds Listserv pranksters could rest assured that listserv contributors were mostly part of the in-crowd; older, savvy, technically equipped, mostly male, long invested and significantly committed to birding and so-on. Importantly, these guys were mostly acquainted at some level, at least through long involvement in Ohio birding. This sort of audience invites pranks because they are inoculated (through previous controlled exposure) against costly consequences. The community has changed. March 31, Kenn Kaufman, undoubtedly the most personally generous birder I know, posted a cautionary note in order to inoculate our changing community against costly consequences of April Fool's Day pranks. Thank you, Kenn. Kenn has achieved a global vantage point few others enjoy. I haven't talked with him in a while, but I know that Kenn sees the "writing on the wall" that many others overlook. Birders are baby-boomers. Baby-boomers will soon decline rapidly. We must do everything we can to engage younger birders and more diverse participation in birding. Birders are important contributors and voters due to their impact on habitat protections. Kenn makes his living writing and selling excellent natural history guides (and giving away Spanish language versions, and more!) and through natural history guiding through top global services. Recent snide remarks about profiting from birding suggest systemic failure to embrace the importance of economic churn to birding and conservation, not to mention the obvious value of rare talent and skill. Economics, like it or not, will determine the future of birding and conservation. More than anything else, birding needs measured and reported economic impacts. Go start a birding business! Ohio's birding community has long manifest abundant generosity through no-cost services we provide and take for granted. The real value of the self-governed integrated bird reporting and filtering systems in Ohio is immeasurable. Ohio is blessed to host a legion of generous birders always at the ready to help others at their own expense. We need that generosity along with economic churn to impact the future. Thank you all for your contributions. The birding community is changing and that's a good thing. Out listserv must serve and appeal to a broad audience. I infrequently, grudgingly participate in Facebook, guess I'm dating myself, that's the point. I need the listserv, others need Facebook and its ilk. New forums are a boon for birding and conservation, that's a good thing. These forums must be inviting and considerate of diverse viewpoints and diverse experience levels. Find eye-opening stats about birding here: http://pcjv.org/docs/2011%20Birding%20Report--FINAL.pdf Tom Bain Ohio's Clayey Till Plain Delaware County -----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. > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. > Please consider joining our Society, at > www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. > Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. > > > You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: > listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS > Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] > ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]