I must be too skeptical......

[eyeamtheman]

As I posted last night in Barbara's " I was Wrong " post, I went to several of the established colonies in and around Natchitoches, La that I knew had birds even before I did every year, and there were NO martins. I wish to visit with this landlord and hope he or she comes forth with a post or some more information, because there is not a " DuzaZaba " or whatever in the forum registry. I also understand that he or she may want their privacy, and that's fine, but being so close to where I live, I wish to follow up on the validity of this sighting.
I hope beforehand to be forgiven for my being skeptical, but seeing or having martins a full MONTH before the usual arrival time is either a small miracle, or a complete hoax and I'd like to know which. People make honest mistakes, and my bet is on that, other than someone just trying to be dishonest..........

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I was under the impression that your name as shown must be on the member list?

[eyeamtheman]

Apparently Emil, that's not the case, and I guess anyone, at anytime can make a sighting post whether it's true or not......

[eyeamtheman]

Surely Emil and I are not the only ones that are gonna comment on this......I think it's important. If all or most of the ones I know read this post disagree with what I said, I would like some constructive criticism please. Am I totally wrong?????

[Adam Romain]

Ok Johnny, I'll jump in!

If I have it correctly, anyone can come to the PMCA website and access the Scout page. If they submit a report, they have to enter their name, address, city, zip, etc. However, they have the choice to keep their information private.

They can do all this without being a member or participant of the Forum. Not sure if you will receive any additional information unless "DuzaZaba" posted it. Since we are given a choice, obviously, the PMCA would not release the information.

Considering your findings, I would assume the post is not credible until "DuzaZaba" comes back and post information otherwise. Hate to be skeptical, but it appears this is the case.....

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Adam, how do you pronounce that name, it must start with "doozy"

[eyeamtheman]

Thanks Adam for your comments. It's hard to believe there are so many that refuses to comment on this, but I respect that. And after my second short drive to Natchitoches, and much more lengthy search, I'm convinced to compare my findings to Emils' attempt at pronouncing the name..........
Thanks a lot Emil, that was right on.......hard to imagine the possibilities next year. Somebody I guess could post they saw a martin December 1st
and no one will question the sighting?

[floridasunshinegoddess]

Johnny,

I am right with you on this. I truly thought I was seeing Martins when I posted my sighting on Jan 1.... Although I know that is VERY early for Central Florida.

Having never seen Tree Swallows in my life and not knowing that we have them here, it never occured to me that they were anything but Martins.

After I heard comments about Tree Swallows in Florida, I then reconsidered and asked Pat to remove my Scout Report. Lesson learned.

I can only imagine that "Duzie" made an honest mistake. If I, who very well know what a PM looks like, can make that mistake.... I guess others can as well. Hopefully, the PMCA will take mistakes into consideration when compiling their data.

[Pat Kramer]

This is a matter that causes great concern for all PMCA staff involved in maintaining either the website and/or maintaining the scientific scout-arrival database. Obviously we scrutinize data at much higher level for the scientific database than the website's. That said, I would like to refer you all to the disclaimer we have on each scout page displaying data:

Note: Due to the volume of scout arrival reports received, the PMCA cannot verify the accuracy of individual reports. Consequently, the PMCA posts scout arrival reports as received. Reports of adult (ASY) martins generally are reliable, but some reports of subadult (SY) martins may not be, because observers sometimes mistake adult females for subadults. (See the Purple Martin identification page.) Subadult martins generally arrive 3-6 weeks later than adults at any given location. Thus, very early reports of subadults should be viewed with caution.

I would like to add that the scout form has some advanced date filtering abilities that will classify a scout/subadult report as "early" or "late" based on all previous data. If a report is classified as early, the reporter is asked to provide more information.

Yes, any person who wishes to, can report scouts/subadults. The scout form is unrelated to this forum or any other section of this website.

"DuzaZaba" is an alias, and is acceptable to the PMCA as a means to conceal his/her identity. I felt as the designer of the present scout-arrival study pages that privacy had to be an option to ensure that we don't discourage any one from reporting scouts.

Obviously, the scout form asks many questions. Only city, state, date, and 'name' are shown for each report. DuzaZaba's report provided supportive information that cannot be publicly disclosed by the PMCA due to the privacy standards outlined by the scout form. You will need DuzaZaba to disclose that him/herself.

Skepticism is an important part of any scientific study, be assured that the PMCA follows an established protocol for accepting/rejecting reports.

[eyeamtheman]

Thank you PMCA...your comments are appreciated.

[Dick Sherry]

I was also amazed that a martin was reported that far north in LA, but this has been one of the strangest winters I can recall in this part of the country. We have had extremely strong winds at times over the last month that are from the south prior to a front coming through, and then from the north. Tuesday morning it was snowing, and Wed. afternoon it was in the 60's.

Over the years, the first martins I see either stop briefly at our colony or are flying over. They generally seem to be on their way to some other place. Given the very bizarre weather this year, there may be numerous very early reports from different parts of the country. It pays to be somewhat skeptical of these, but if they are coming from experienced landlords, they deserve some credibility. My biggest concern is for these early arriving birds, and whether they will be able to survive the wild swings in temperature and drought conditions over a broad part of their southwestern range. In the past, when we have had mild weather in Jan. and Feb., we seem to catch late cold spells and March snowstorms that spell big trouble for arriving martins. Guess we better be ready to provide supplemental feeding.

[Guest]

Johnny, right on friend, I find it very frsutrating as well to have "doozies" or whomever report false sightings, as we all know it is such a frustrating thing to happen. As I posted on the clubhouse, we have always been leery about posting such a sighting until we have picture proof. I for one would never want to alert someone of a false sighting. Unfortunately there is, nor I do not know how there can be a system set up to stop such people from making false statements that they KNOW are falso. Just shame on them as Emil and I concur, Don and I look for multiple sightings by hopefully credible people and then we start sweating from then on the wait is on....i just looked back at our 2003 calendar and we had our first precious guy here on January 29th., and he sent us into a bllind panic that is for sure. Our arrivals last year were on febraury 8th, where he stayed just a little while and by the 11th, we had a total of 17 martins, so we are just biding our time to see what happens this year. I am going to get more food for them just in case they arrive any time soon, because there is nothing to eat here. So dry......so sad oops got off of the subject....just wanted to put in my two cents worth and say that I agree that bad reporting is a no no!!