Thanks to everyone who shared information about the appearance of juv Laughing Gulls along the LI shore this summer. It sounds as though they appeared relatively late but, as is sometimes the case, simultaneously in widely scattered places. Confirmation of a new breeding site on the island will probably have to wait until another year (I believe all the "confirmed" blocks east of Jamaica Bay in the Atlas represent flying juvs).
It's interesting to me that almost all the info about Laughing Gulls, which is what I asked for in my post, was offered privately, whereas it was my rather secondary--and mild--expression of disappointment about community effort patterns that garnered public discussion. In giving serious thought to the various points that were raised, including my own, the only general theme I can discern that is worth pursuing is the question of whether or not birding itself can be studied, in a manner similar to how we study egrets and Laughing Gulls. I believe that it can, and I've scrupulously recorded data regarding the birders I've encountered in the field over the past 35 years in an effort to document their patterns of abundance, distribution, and behavior--and to look for changes or trends in these things. And what's wrong with that? It's very likely that Andrew could marshall data to support his hypothesis about a shift toward alerts-oriented effort; Dave could well be drawing on a deep body of background knowledge when he criticizes my inability to identify egrets and report them in a satisfactory manner; and Arie might be right that his birding and reporting practices, including his chase and followup of the Little Egret, have been meritorious. My statement that the overall egret-chasing effort collapsed prematurely back on 22 May is not a personal attack on any particular person; it is a conclusion based on a large body of observations. It's the information age--the data are out there! Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ CSI Tops MONEY magazine’s Best Colleges list for 2015-2016><http://csitoday.com/2015/07/csi-tops-money-magazines-best-colleges-list-for-2015-2016/> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
