Watchers spread word on unusual sightings

I received an e-mail recently from a reader who told me that hehad a Vermillion Flycatcher in his yard. He wondered if it wasunusual.

The Vermillion Flycatcher is a little smaller than a robin. Itgets its name from the male's brilliant fire-engine crimson face,breast and belly. His back, wings and tail are brownish-black.Females are gray-brown above, lighter and streaked below and pinkishon the belly.

Vermillion Flycatchers are native to to the Southwestern UnitedStates, Mexico and Central and South America. Occasionally, theywander into the Mid-South. One showed up at Hatchie NationalWildlife Refuge a few years back, and another was located at Dundee,Miss., on an Audubon Christmas Bird Count. There are fewer than 10records of the species in Shelby County.

The British ornithologist James Fisher described bird watching as"a superstition, a tradition, an art, a science, a pleasure, a hobbyor a bore." It is all of those things, and it can be either asolitary or a social pursuit. But as the world rapidly shrinks withadvances in communication and technology, it becomes more and moreimportant that birders communicate with one another.

In a world where there is constant pressure to acquire so-called"friends," whom you likely don't know and really don't want to know,one of the joys of birding is that the birder can walk through thewoods, along a lakeshore or even sit at the kitchen window,observing and enjoying birds all alone . The pure pleasure isjustification for the activity. But all of those who observe birdsshould at least be aware that communication of the results of theirpursuit may have important effects beyond their own gratification.

The late Ben and Lula Coffey, founders in the 1930s of theMemphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, maintainedmeticulous and extensive records of all of their observations andencouraged all their associates to do the same. Over the years,those records have been used by scientists as data in habitatconservation efforts throughout the Mid-South.

One never knows which observations, recorded and preserved, maybe important in conserving some woods, marsh or wetland for acritically endangered species.

In addition, the communication of such sightings may be veryuseful to "listers," those birders who attempt to record birds in aparticular locality, time frame or circumstance, purely for theirown enjoyment.

The Vermillion Flycatcher would have drawn birders who mightnever be able to visit New Mexico or Arizona to see it, and otherswho would jump at the chance to add it to their list of speciesobserved in Tennessee or Shelby County.

Over the years, observations such as those of the Coffeys havebeen published in The Migrant, the Tennessee OrnithologicalSociety's quarterly journal. Local birding clubs have longmaintained "rare bird alerts," which use telephone trees to notifymembers of unusual sightings.

The Tennessee Ornithological Society owns an Internet listingcalled Tennbirds (tn-bird@freelists.org), where any sighting in thestate can be instantly recorded and permanently archived by anysubscriber, whether a member or not. And now there is e-bird.

Ebird ( ebird.org ) is a website operated since 2002 by theNational Audubon Society and the Cornell University Labratory ofOrnithology. Anyone may access ebird to record bird sightings or toretrieve and analyze data for scientific research without having toflip through hundreds of back issues of The Migrant. In January2010, more than 1.5 million entries of bird sightings were enteredinto e-bird.

The Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society hasbegun to enter that data into ebird.

I would encourage anyone, novice or experienced, to associatewith like-minded enthusiasts by joining the Memphis chapter of theTennessee Ornithological Society ( tnbirds.org ). During ourmeetings, there is always an "unusual sightings" time, whensightings of note are mentioned.

Van Harris is president of the Memphis Chapter of the TennesseeOrnithological Society, a member of the Mississippi OrnithologicalSociety and the Mississippi Chapter of the National Audubon Society.Send questions to shelbyforester1223@bigriver.net