Rare birds (1 Viewer)

In response to the conversation currently going on on the Black Woodpecker thread,I would be interested to find out what birds people have seen,subsequently reported only to be turned down for whatever reason by the BBRC or other countries Rare birds committee ???

Back in the day when great cormorant was reportable in parts of southeast PA and before everyone had a smart phone, a couple of us reported an immature great cormorant via a written report to the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee (PORC). I was told it was rejected because we didn't consider and eliminate other even less likely species, like neotropic or pelagic cormorants.

We call that "getting PORCed."

Ha ha like it.

Arctic Redpoll reported in Lothian - took genuine field notes, including sketches. I confess to being a crap artist, so the undertail coverts, which I knew were important, were drawn too thickly in pen (no pencil available) - but I did annote the diagram to indicate this fault in my draughtsmanship. The young birder I was with did not submit his notes, which would have confirmed the fact that we did have a brief yet clear view of this area. It looked better than at least some individuals that I have seen since, and which were accepted. Does it matter that it got away as a record? Not really.

The sniper said:

In response to the conversation currently going on on the Black Woodpecker thread,I would be interested to find out what birds people have seen,subsequently reported only to be turned down for whatever reason by the BBRC or other countries Rare birds committee ???

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We have quite strict rules on uncommon birds, but generally people make tons of photographs and they are either considered a good proof or are calls for help in determination ("I saw this buzzard, just checking if it is the common one"), and then the experts say "wow, you have (name of species) " and start discussing the bird's age.

In several cases experts from the committee were the ones who reported the unusual species; I guess most people visiting the city dump would categorize gulls into small (almost always ridibundus), medium (canus) and large (frankly I don't know if I am supposed to call the local species michahelis or cachinnans; almost all I have seen are juveniles completely covered in dark spots), but only experts have noticed and recognized a single marinus in non-adult-breeding plumage.