Skip to main content

Not intermediate, but cattle?


I've just found the Editors' Notebook from a 2004 issue of North American Birds, where Edward S. Brinkley writes:
We intend to revisit an older article on Intermediate Egret on Midway Atoll, Hawaii (N. A. B. 53: 441-443), which may pertain to an "Eastern Cattle-Egret" rather than an Intermediate Egret (have we piqued the reader's interest?).

As the author of the article in question, I am eager to see the clarification, which is apparently approaching a draft stage now. Ever since I was informed that the American Ornithologists' Union check-list committee passed over the "intermediate" egret report in its 45th supplement, I have hoped to read a well documented alternative view. I expect to be presumed mistaken and am comfortable with that. It's just hard to be wrong so publicly.

It happens, though; I am not alone. After recounting a handful of other questioned identifications recorded in NAB, Brinkley goes on to write:

It is remarkable, and very humbling to one's own grasp of bird identification, to receive opposing opinions from experts in their fields!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Elusive Subja Seed

Why am I so captivated by the idea of drinking tasteless, slippery, crunchy-kerneled seeds? Because subja seeds sound like fun. I first learned of them by browsing The Indian Spice Kitchen , where Monisha Bharadwaj describes them, but Osimum basilicum seeds seem impossible to find. I made a special trip to Seattle's Uwajimaya to track them down, but came up empty. I stopped at Market Spice at Pike Street, where they hadn't heard of them (but they suggested another shop down the street). I went into Souk, where the gentleman understood what I was looking for only after I described it; he knew the seeds by a different name, which he couldn't remember, and said his sister gets them at a shop (the name not in his memory) on Roosevelt Avenue. But I was out of time in the city and couldn't follow up. (But before I took more than a few steps out Souk's door, the proprietor called me back in, because he had asked his arriving friend what those seeds were called. Tukmaria, ...

AMSAT Looks for an Easy-Sat Answer

For at least two decades, most radio amateurs getting involved with satellite communications have started on the "easy sats," FM birds that simplify hams' first forays into space. During this time, four satellites produced by AMSAT North America have been wildly popular. Two of them, AO-51 (2004-2011) and AO-85 (2015-2020), are now defunct. The others, AO-91 (2017- ) and AO-92 (2018- ), are limping toward their demise. While a few other FM satellites remain operational, and FM repeater operations are sometimes scheduled from the International Space Station, AMSAT-NA recently acknowledged it should have a role in repopulating the easy-sat stage.   AO-51, launched in 2004, was operational for more than 7 years. Photo: VE4NSA. In its 2021-2035 Strategic Plan , AMSAT committed to developing, deploying, and supporting a series of cubesats to operate in low Earth orbit (LEO). And in the July/August Apogee View , President Robert Bankston, KE4AL, prioritized options for meet...