Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!ohstpy!miavx1!miamiu!jahayes
From: JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Jizz
Message-ID: <90245.160352JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET>
Date: 2 Sep 90 21:03:52 GMT
References: <6881@milton.u.washington.edu> <585@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> <90244.113301JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET> <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu>
Organization: Miami University - Academic Computer Service
Lines: 37

In article <1990Sep1.231807.9059@nmt.edu>, john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) says:
>
>It seems to me that sometimes such usage comes from the
>strong urge to twitch a species (that is, check off a
>species on a list---another British usage becoming common in
>the US), and is used to support sightings in the absence of
>any truly hard evidence.
>--
>John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu
>``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber
 
That's a good point. It's very tempting sometimes; I can't count
the number of Empidonaxes I've seen that were stubbornly silent.
Sat ten feet away and looked smug at me. Guess what I am? Grrr.
There are important characters, however, that are all too often
underemphasized in field guide descriptions, primarily those of
*behavior* and *specific habitat*. Range maps are nice, but one
can often eliminate from consideration a species restricted to,
say, >20' lodgepole pines, if you're in a deciduous river basin.
Similarly, that ridiculous bobbing that spotted sandpipers do,
kind of like characters in really old animations, you know? Just
sort of jigging in space, so you know IT'S ANIMATED. A dead give-
away in what can be a frustrating group, at least for me. I also
find sonograms enormously helpful, 'cause I can read them pretty
well, but my wife can't make head or tail of them....
 
Well. By the way, Acton Lake, in Hueston Woods State Park in SW
Ohio, is teeming with Great Blue Herons. Lots of kingfishers, too,
and the chickadee and titmouse populations seem to overwhelm any
other passerines. The nesting pairs of Yellow-Throated Warblers
that I had pinpointed are now gone; so I guess the migration has
begun in earnest. So long, birds of summer....
Josh Hayes, Zoology Department, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056
voice: 513-529-1679      fax: 513-529-6900
jahayes@miamiu.bitnet, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
It goes in, it must come out. [Testicle's deviant to Fudd's
first law of opposition.]