May
26
A great story about Black-necked Stilts in Cape May; and a book every birder needs to read
Filed Under birding norms |
A couple of weeks ago, I was regaling some friends with a great story Roger Tory Peterson recounted in his wonderful book “Birds Over America”, regarding a hoax played upon birders participating in Audubon’s spring convention in Cape May.
We were actually talking about Black-necked Stilts in NJ, and how the second or third week of May is a great time to find vagrants of this one-time New Jersey breeding bird.
Well, as luck would have it, lo and behold, the very next day, and on the third weekend in May no less, in conjunction with an Audubon convention, a Black-necked Stilt decided to show up in Cape May, and made a couple of passes around “the Island”.
Peterson’s tale is a lot more entertaining, and I am at liberty to provide a synopsis, which appears in perhaps my favorite chapter of “Birds Over America”, the one entitled “Deceiving the Experts”.
During the National Audubon Society’s convention, held in Cape May, a Black-necked Stilt turned up on the Lighthouse Pond, after a fifty-year hiatus of records in NJ, and the species’ extirpation in the state. Leave it to the painter in the group to think something was a bit off with the bird, namely that the leg-colour seemed wrong. The bird also seemed a bit too, well, “still” shall we say.
Well, the young Peterson took it upon himself to wade/swim across the channel, and look for himself. He found, to the chagrin of the birders who had happily ticked the bird, that it was indeed attached to a wooden base, and was a mounted specimen. The legs were in fact painted the wrong hue (all taxidermied bird specimens have the soft-part colours painted on, as they fade, fish or reptile like, quite quickly following dispatchment). The bird had apparently been rescued from the trash of a house-cleaning at the collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and “some wit” from the DVOC had hit upon the idea for a great gag.
Ironically, the revelation of the hoax caused many of the birders to be so displeased that they shunned Peterson for the remainder of the weekend-such was their mispalced disappointment!
I have just always loved that story, and the irony of speaking about it the day before an actual and animated Stilt turned up on Cape Island was too much to go unmentioned here.
Now, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the text in which the tale is mentioned-as a bird enthusiast, you should quickly do everything in your power to rectify the matter, and make every effort to read “Birds over America”. It is one of those books that is illuminating, unbelievably easy to read, and one will want to re-read. Also, I consider it to be part of “the Canon” for any birder, and a necessary addition to any bird library.
It is important to have link with one’s tradition, and this book, like “Wild America” is invaluable in providing this connection. Too many of today’s birders come to it having read “Birdwatching for Dummies” or by subscribing to list-serves, and do not realize they are, to a certain degree, re-inventing the wheel.
I would strongly urge anyone who hasn’t to find and read this wonderful book, it provides an overview of birds and birding on the continent that is invaluble, and a delight to read and re-read. Originally published in 1948, it was revised in 1963-64, and last reprinted in 1976, and 1983. My copy of Peterson’s “Birds Over America” is by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. with a Library of Congress catalogue number of QL682.P473 1983 598.2973 83-16364, and an ISBN 0-396-08269-6 (pbk).
Go get it, or if you already have it, re-read it-its still just as good.
CJV