Further Afield

An earlier version of this column appem:ed in The Ohio Cardinal 27(2).. otherwise known as the Winter 2003-04 issue.Much has cha!1ged 011 the 01110 birding scene since then, and k11owing that many new subscnbers have recently come aboard.it seems a good rime to bri11g everyone up to date.Jn the account that follows, some of the names have been changed; the message.howeve1: remains the same.]M aybe you've wandered the same wistful trail.l've visited South Carolina's I 'on Swamp, if only out of tribute.Scared up plenty of turkey hunters, but no Bachman's warblers.I've vi.sited the sandy pastures of western Galveston Island, Texas, ifonly out oft;1but~._Saw wads of whimbrels and scads of cattle, but no Eskimo curlews.I ve v1s1ted Ba yo~ de View in Arkansas, Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp, and South Carol.masCongaree Swamp, if only out of tribute.Saw a pile of pileateds, but the 1vorybilleds elegantly eluded me.I've even made a pilgrimage to the Passenger Pigeon Memorial at the Cincinnati Zoo,_ and d?ffed my c~p to Martha, t~e last of her kind, who lived in captivity all her hfe until succumbing at t~e Zoom 1914.Doffed likewise at the plaque for Lady Jane and Incas, the worlds last kno~~ pair of Carolina parakeets, who died at the sa~e zoo in 191_ 7 and I? 18.I v1s1ted these sitesdreamily, I' ll admit, but pragmatically expectmg nothing-and saw exactly what l expected to see.Sometimes it's altogether too easy to forget why you_ do wha~ you do.As a fonner editor of The Ohio Cardinal, as a forrner Ohio compile~ for North American Bird~ magazine, and as a multi-term member of th~ ~~10 Bird Records Committee (OBRC), it has been (in part) my respons1b1h_ty and privilege over the past 20+ years to monitor Ohi?'s birding _records.Lt 1s a, commitment and a challenge that I take very senouslythis gate-keeper s role.Truthfully, though, the task can seem endless, ~onotonous_, and thankless.The financial rewards are nonexistent, or more precisely, negative.And frank.I~, the entire exercise can grow somewhat numbing-processin~ years of good birds into mere statistics.But then I think back on Bayou de View, or Galveston Island, or I 'on Swamp, and immediately my focus sharpens, and my duty becomes all too clear.Of course, bird populations and movements are never static, and their fluctuations always demand careful scrutiny.But for the most part, these movements are comfortably predictable, ebbing and flow!ng at _ab?ut the s~i:ie time, year after year, and in roughly the same numbers, given s11nilar cond.1t1ons.Various populations trend upward or downward, but usually they do so quite slowly.Sudden catastrophes such as the ravages of West Nile virus are a ~hock to the system.But the evanescence of slow, almost imperceptible change is .particularly pernicious.This sort of metamorphosis does not descen?upon us 111 a blinding flashrather, it melts away our birds, slowly but surely, nght before 162 The Ohio Cardinal Harlan our eyes.So slowly that we may not even notice that it's happening, until it's too late.And so, we must monitor all of our birds, whether they be migrants or residents, nesters or winterers, game or non-game, or just a few hopelessly anomalous vagrants, desperate and lonely a long way from home.We monitor our birds wherever they may occur in the state, and whenever.It is gratifying to think that birds can benefit from our efforts-whether they dine at our feeders.or raise their young in a preserve that our donations helped to acquire.Even if we are unable to experience them personally, birds somehow give us pleasure wherever they may be.It's a good thing just to know that they are out there, running their birdy errands as best as they can.But it's a better thing to know that we are helping their cause in every way we can.We owe them more than our feeders, our dollars, and our refuges-we owe them our attention.Diligent attention.A noble idea-but where to begin?Formally reporting one's bird observations may not seem especially glamorous, but it's always a worthwhile exercise, and one open to all contributors regardless of background.Our records, when distilled, help to establish our current understanding of bird abundance and distribution, while simultaneously serving as benchmarks for future research.Every season, many widely scattered observers collectively take a snapshot of each species' ups and downs, and uniformities, enabling us to preserve this image when the results are published in the permanent, printed historical record.This is the seasonal summary you'll find in every issue of the Cardinal; for three decades now, this summary has served as a fundamental raison d'etre.Although I'm sure many would disagree, I feel that the perrnanent preservation of the historical record on the printed page is inherently more desirable than preservation electronically.Online, the long-term availability of web pages and web sites is always a concern; also, text and graphics can be altered without any acknowledgement that such has taken place.It can also sometimes be hard to avoid a casual.ephemeral "anything goes" attitude on the Web; while this can be beneficial in many circumstances, breeziness does not serve the historical record, our benchmark for future researchers, especially well.Print media, however, are no match for electronic media when it comes to ease of storage and the ability to manipulate virtually unlimited amounts of data.Even so, my gut tells me to "get it on paper" whenever feasible.Call me oldfashioned.And a bit stubborn.So what do compilers, editors, and record keepers expect in the reports they receive?Although there are several different layers of reporting opportunities avai lable (local, state, regional, national, and international in scope), all compilers desire each record to include at least these five basic bits of infonnation: the species, the number of individuals observed, the date of the observation, the site of the observation, and the name of the observer.Any other inforrnation, such as the age and plumage of the bird, corroborating observers, etc., is also welcomed.Photographs are always desirable, especially for verification of rarities, but even then photos are not a requirement.Compilers have an easier job when contributors submit their reports in the current American Ornithologists' Union checklist order; although helpful, this is not essential.For printed media, space is always at a premium, and editors have

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