I second (or third) all the kudos. People who embrace their mistakes
always learn something in the process. And I find that people who can
admit their mistakes are ultimately more trustworthy. To me and many
others that I am fortunate to know, the opportunity to learn something new
is more than half the fun and mistakes are part of the journey.
On Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 1:57 PM Barbara Dawson <
<000013e81b9a9400-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> Marc and Nora, How nice of you to send those emails. There's a tendency
> in our world today not to take the initiative and admit a mistake. Kudos
> to each of you -- Marc for his honorable action and Nora for taking the
> time to acknowledge it. Barbara Dawson, New Brunswick
> On Friday, September 13, 2024 at 01:44:41 PM EDT, Nora Hummel <
> <000011b62e2b8f4d-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
> Marc it takes a truly honorable person to own up to a mistake or admit
> they were wrong good for you as no one would have been the wiser. Thank you
> Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
>
> On Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 12:24 PM, CHELEMER, MARC J<mc2496...>
> wrote: Jerseybirders,
>
> I made such a big deal about the encounter with what Cliff Miller and I
> thought was a Western Tanager last Friday that I now feel obliged to write
> a retraction. I was wrong, dead wrong. Even more embarrassing to admit is
> what we now believe it to have been: an oversized Pine Warbler.
>
> I didn't at the time appreciate that Western Tanagers, as illustrated in
> Sibley's field guide, and as some photos from E-Bird show, have a yellow
> vent; "our" bird did not. Western Tanagers don't have white panels in the
> outer tail feathers; Pine Warblers do have such panels; "our" bird did, too
> (I saw ONE whitish feather and thought it an aberration, given how unusual
> it looked anyway). Western Tanager bills have a tinge of coral or pink,
> which ours did...that's what prompted us to think about it being a tanager
> in the first place. But upon examination of the pictures Cliff was able to
> take, the bill is just a bit too pointy, even if it is thick. So this Pine
> Warbler just happened to have a tinge of color on its bill. We thank
> another birder for calling our attention to this field mark.
>
> "Our" bird seemed much larger than a typical Pine Warbler as well; that's
> another reason we thought it a Tanager. But we had just encountered, not
> ten minutes earlier, an enormous Red-eyed Vireo...the size of a Veery. So
> clearly, there's significant size variation...a Pine Warbler an inch or an
> inch and a half larger than usual approaches the size of a small Tanager.
>
> We've changed our checklists appropriately, and thank the County Reviewer
> for any work she or he might have done on our behalf to verify the original
> ID.
>
> Live and learn.
>
> Good birding,
>
> Marc Chelemer
> Tenafly
>
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