BYLAWS                                        REVIEW LIST

 

Fellow Rhode Island Birders,

We are pleased to announce the formation of a Rhode Island Avian Records Committee, during meetings on 8 January and 15 February 2008.

 

Composed of seven long-time Rhode Island birders and ornithologists, the committee’s purpose is to evaluate documentation for unusual occurrences of birds in Rhode Island and its adjacent ocean waters, through application of consistent, rigorous, and impartial procedures, toward the greater goal of preserving an accurate and reliable historical record of Rhode Island’s birds.

 

We encourage all Rhode Island birders to read the Review List and to contribute descriptions, photos, and other documentation supporting their observations of these species to Doug Wilson, who has agreed to serve as Secretary. Reports can be sent to him at 214 Posnegansett Ave., Warwick, RI 02888. Although the committee welcomes reports in any kind of format, electronic files such as Microsoft Word documents and jpeg image files are the most convenient and can be sent as email attachments to riarc.ribirds@gmail.com.

 

In a number of cases, we are aware that observers have submitted rare bird reports to the members of this committee, for CBCs, Field Notes of Rhode Island Birds, North American Birds, etc. We are grateful for these. We are also aware of several very exciting potential additions to the state list from the last few years: Pink-footed Goose, Cackling Goose, Cinnamon Teal, Reddish Egret, Mew Gull, Bell's Vireo, Redwing, and Virginia's Warbler. We strongly encourage contributions from birders having documentation supporting these reports--or any other reports of species new to Rhode Island.


Many Rhode Island birders have experience preparing rare bird reports, but because Rhode Island has lacked a consistent, formal reporting protocol in recent years, some RI birders might be unfamiliar with this sort of process. Suggestions for preparing strong reports can be found in many places, including the following websites:

 

 http://massbird.org/MARC/MARCchecklist.htm

http://www.ctbirding.org/rare_report.htm

http://www.greglasley.net/document.html

 

http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rarities.html

 

http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/goodreport.htm

 

The usefulness of the historical record of Rhode Island’s birds depends mainly on the hard work of its amateur birders. The Rhode Island Avian Records Committee hopes to support this collective work by collecting, reviewing, archiving, and publishing summaries of the many remarkable bird observations occurring in Rhode Island.

 

Sincerely,

Robert Emerson

Rachel Farrell

Richard Ferren

Shaibal Mitra

Christopher Raithel

Scott Tsagarakis

Doug Wilson