A while back a friend very excitingly sent a photo around of a Meadowlands bird that he later realized he misidentified. He felt very badly about his slipup and saw a need to apologize for it. I explained to him that there was really no need, since every birder makes mistakes, only nowadays our blunders make it all over list serves, Twitter ,websites and Facebook just to name a few places.
A wise old birder once told me that the only difference between an experienced birder and a beginner is that the expert has misidentified more birds. But my friend’s apology got me thinking. What If I had to apologize for every bird I misidentified?