For the birds
Apr. 18th, 2011 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoSo the monitor for this area came and sat in our driveway all afternoon, hoping to see that woodpecker. He didn't (no surprise, I'm sure it's many miles away by now) but he did see some other birds that I hadn't seen yet this year (yellow rumped warblers) or at all in this location (both the ruby and the golden crowned kinglet.)
He agreed that the holes in one of our dead oaks look as if they were likely made by a pileated woodpecker. There is one confirmed just about ten miles east of here, so it's at least possible.
I was horrified to find out this morning that my observation was echoed to more than one website as a "rare bird sighting" with links to a Google map that pointed right to our house and barn. This was apparently generated automatically by the ebird.org site where I reported the sighting. At least one other birder showed up during the day looking for the bird. I have altered my profile on the website to hide my name, and erased all the location information except township and county. I also removed that particular observation from my report, not because I don't still think we saw what I said we saw, but because I don't want to be pestered by people asking about it. I had planned to dump bird count information going back for more than ten years into that database, but now I'm more inclined to wipe out everything I'd already given them. This was a real backhand to the face that I didn't expect, and I don't like it one bit.
He agreed that the holes in one of our dead oaks look as if they were likely made by a pileated woodpecker. There is one confirmed just about ten miles east of here, so it's at least possible.
I was horrified to find out this morning that my observation was echoed to more than one website as a "rare bird sighting" with links to a Google map that pointed right to our house and barn. This was apparently generated automatically by the ebird.org site where I reported the sighting. At least one other birder showed up during the day looking for the bird. I have altered my profile on the website to hide my name, and erased all the location information except township and county. I also removed that particular observation from my report, not because I don't still think we saw what I said we saw, but because I don't want to be pestered by people asking about it. I had planned to dump bird count information going back for more than ten years into that database, but now I'm more inclined to wipe out everything I'd already given them. This was a real backhand to the face that I didn't expect, and I don't like it one bit.
