It has been my experience with the GBBC that the don't want rarities. They want confirmation of preconceived notions. Almost every time I submit a sighting that disagrees with what Cornell has already concluded it gets disallowed. I've written and complained, been promised and put off, with no change.

I have not participated for two years now, because I consider the count to be a farce and a waste of my time.

If they really wanted to learn, they'd consider my sightings as at least a possibility but instead they have been dismissed out of hand. You can hardly call that science.

One of the trickiest issues for birders of all skill levels is documenting rarities. If you see a rare bird and KNOW you've seen a rare bird, it definitely belongs on your list. But if you see a rarity and know you've seen it, it doesn't necessarily belong on anyone else's list. It's not at all that someone doesn't believe you--it's that to make it to the scientific record, different standards apply than to make it to our personal record. And every scientific group has different standards. I saw a Pomarine Jaeger once, with two other respected birders who had both had experience with both Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers. We were on the Minnesota side of the St. Louis River, and watched the bird fly into Wisconsin, so we reported the bird to both state records committees. One accepted the sighting; one did not. I've also reported a Kirtland's Warbler during fall migration once--a sighting that was accepted by the recovery team but not by the state birding committee. Was the state committee wrong? Nope--they simply needed a higher level of proof, and I hadn't been able to take a photograph before the bird disappeared.

The experienced birders who serve as our regional reviewers have a very tricky job, and naturally some experienced birders may disagree with some of their judgments, especially and naturally when it comes to their own sightings. But our reviewers can't hide under the cloak of anonymity--their reputations are on the line with their decisions. As I learned when I was the spring seasonal editor reviewing many sightings for one state journal, it's usually wiser to err on the side of caution--I've even been known to not count one of my own sightings, when I was 100% certain of my own identification, because I knew I did not document a critical field mark that needed to be included in the permanent record. Did I see the bird? Yes. Did it belong on the state record? No.

a yellow-headed blackbird visited my seed feeder in Orlando Florida this morning. He was in a flock of red-wings but was a good deal larger and picking and fighting with them. It was unmistakeably the yellow-head. Bright yellow head, coal black body, and white wing patches. With a strange harsh call. Has anyone else witnessed one in Florida?

Barbara Eagan

Yes, I had one show up in a flock of red-wings just like you did, near Lake Okeechobee. It was over 10 years ago, but yes it can happen. :-)

A pair has been visiting our feeder at lake Poinsett, west of Cocoa for a month. I have multiple photos of both the male and female. A number of birders have been by and seen one or both. This sighting has been confirmed by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. See: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has confirmed our yellow-headed blackbirds as a rare bird sighting for this location. See: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/DataRetrieval/RareBird/2009/rare-birds2009-10.html Doug Sphar

I saw a Northern Shrike in the evergreen near the feeders 3 weeks ago. I had to look it up bcause I had never seen on before. We are in the rural Ferryville, WI area.