At the time of this sighting, serious birders carried binoculars, a note book, and a pencil or pen. When they found an unusual bird, they immediately began to document diagnostsic features, following a rich tradition followed in California and spread throughout the continent. Some had cameras with fast color film; a fortunate few had telephoto lenses. Word was spread by telephone to other serious birders who rushed to the spot. A rare bird like this had to be certified by the Maryland/District of Columbia Records Committee (MD/DCRC). Joanne Solem was the only one who prepared a report for the MD/DCRC and sent it in by surface mail.
Phil Davis, Secretary of MD/DCRC, provides the rest of the story:
“The record was accepted without having the slides, just on the basis of Jo’s written report. These photos were added later, around 3/17/1996. The history of the photos is … when Harvey Mudd was Chair of the committee, we approached Rich Rowlett with a list of reports for which we did not have [photographic] documentation but believed that photos had been taken. This record was one of those on the list. Rich provided Harvey with his original color slides (sorry, I don’t know the original type of film) and Harvey made dupes and sent the originals back to Rich. The four color side dupes are all marked, in Harvey’s handwritting, ‘Varied Thrush’ Maryland: Howard Co., Savage, 11-15 Dec 1977. R.A. Rowlett. I scanned the slides as jpgs with my Nikon LS-5000 slide duplicator.”
Documentation by Joanne Solem
(Click picture for enlarged PDF copy)
