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More suppression in Cornwall (1 Viewer)

john miller said:
That could be an honest mistake, we have all made those. Stringing is claiming a bird you have not seen well enough to make a 100% ID on.

John
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Um... round here stringing is understood to encompass not only those precise IDs of birds one didn't see well, but also claiming to have seen something you didn't (because you were at a car boot sale in Luton or whatever). Inventing a sighting and ticking it off is also stringing. Technically the last is hoaxing but if you enhance your list with a hoax you have a stringy bird on it... easy really.

Mark Cocker covers the various kinds of stringing well in Birders - Tales of a Tribe.

What stringing is NOT is shouting "Sab's Gull!" on a seawatch and then going "sorry - Kittiwake". The shout avoids others missing stuff and is better than saying nothing, even if you get short-term abuse for it.

John
 
Farnboro John said:
What stringing is NOT is shouting "Sab's Gull!" on a seawatch and then going "sorry - Kittiwake".
Click to expand...

Agreed. Unfortunately though, if someone gets on your 'Sabine's Gull' and corrects the ID before you do the situation is still loaded with defamatory potential! ;)

This thread has certainly come a long way in 60-odd posts...
 
Hi Adam

At that time, Martin was posting as Wood Stork. He'd been challenged by Durham birders about being Wood Stork - and flatly denied it. Then he changed the username on the Wood Stork account, but presumably didn't realise it would change the name on all of his previous posts ;) That thread still has me in stitches - posts #26 and #27 are 2 moments of comic genius.

cheers
martin

Adam W said:
Dear me ive never seen that thread before.

I wonder what Steve Evans has had to say recently probably a good job he's already banned from Birforum or he would be now anyway.:-O
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martin kitching said:
Hi Adam

At that time, Martin was posting as Wood Stork. He'd been challenged by Durham birders about being Wood Stork - and flatly denied it. Then he changed the username on the Wood Stork account, but presumably didn't realise it would change the name on all of his previous posts ;) That thread still has me in stitches - posts #26 and #27 are 2 moments of comic genius.

cheers
martin
Click to expand...

An entertaining thread, which also raised the question: 'slim driftwood', whatever happened to him ;)?
 
martin kitching said:
Hi Adam

At that time, Martin was posting as Wood Stork. He'd been challenged by Durham birders about being Wood Stork - and flatly denied it. Then he changed the username on the Wood Stork account, but presumably didn't realise it would change the name on all of his previous posts ;) That thread still has me in stitches - posts #26 and #27 are 2 moments of comic genius.

cheers
martin
Click to expand...

Hi Martin, You cant help but laugh at those posts,all this lies and carry on is obviously not a recent thing then its been going on for 6 years at least and who knows how much longer.
 
Adam W said:
Hi Martin, You cant help but laugh at those posts,all this lies and carry on is obviously not a recent thing then its been going on for 6 years at least and who knows how much longer.
Click to expand...

Hows it going Adam? Haven't heard from the person in question since he was exposed as the hoaxer. Yourself?

I think what has happened is that someone tells so many different lies they eventually catch up and it all falls to pieces. Its clearly happened here!
 
FoghornKinghorn said:
Hows it going Adam? Haven't heard from the person in question since he was exposed as the hoaxer. Yourself?

I think what has happened is that someone tells so many different lies they eventually catch up and it all falls to pieces. Its clearly happened here!
Click to expand...

Not too bad mate, I had a text of more lies from him a couple of days later which I ignored so i think he got the message and hasnt tried to contact me since I'm pleased to say.

It wasnt until I read this thread today that I realised the full extent of the lies and the length of time its been going on,I thought it was just a handful of incidents in the last few months but obviously not.

I just still cant get my head around it,there's no doubting his passion and knowledge for birding but at the very same time he was obviously taking the water out of us he was also actually being kind and helpful to us giving us lifts etc, very strange indeed.
 
Adam W said:
Dear me ive never seen that thread before.

I wonder what Steve Evans has had to say recently probably a good job he's already banned from Birforum or he would be now anyway.:-O
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Dear me I wonder what the UK birding scene is saying about us. A long-term hoaxer, SE banned from Birdforum for persistantly badmouthing other birders, a birder who deletes other peoples records at Whitburn Obs (though I haven't seen him for years now, seems to have withdrawn locally after this episode, but still writes in the national birding press I note).
I lived in SE Essex for 2 years and thought the birding scene there was a disaster, but I'm beginning to wonder about the scene here now. Is there something about birding that attracts oddballs, or do all hobbies have this problem?
Still, I guess it keeps us amused - who else is lurking out there to provide the next amusing episode?
 
martin kitching said:
Hi Adam

At that time, Martin was posting as Wood Stork. He'd been challenged by Durham birders about being Wood Stork - and flatly denied it. Then he changed the username on the Wood Stork account, but presumably didn't realise it would change the name on all of his previous posts ;) That thread still has me in stitches - posts #26 and #27 are 2 moments of comic genius.

cheers
martin
Click to expand...

Agreed. If you wrote it in a novel, no one would believe it.
 
martin kitching said:
Hi Adam

At that time, Martin was posting as Wood Stork. He'd been challenged by Durham birders about being Wood Stork - and flatly denied it. Then he changed the username on the Wood Stork account, but presumably didn't realise it would change the name on all of his previous posts ;) That thread still has me in stitches - posts #26 and #27 are 2 moments of comic genius.

cheers
martin
Click to expand...

its the comments "I bet its not" after his final word on the subject that cracked me up :-O
 
duncan fraser said:
Dear me I wonder what the UK birding scene is saying about us. A long-term hoaxer, SE banned from Birdforum for persistantly badmouthing other birders, a birder who deletes other peoples records at Whitburn Obs (though I haven't seen him for years now, seems to have withdrawn locally after this episode, but still writes in the national birding press I note).
I lived in SE Essex for 2 years and thought the birding scene there was a disaster, but I'm beginning to wonder about the scene here now. Is there something about birding that attracts oddballs, or do all hobbies have this problem?
Still, I guess it keeps us amused - who else is lurking out there to provide the next amusing episode?
Click to expand...

It does make you wonder, I'd like to think that its nothing unique to birding but i cant help feeling we have more than a fair share of odd balls.

What a shame it is that after quite possibly the best birding year Durham has ever had with so many fantasic birds and birding experiences that we are ending the year with all this ridiculous carry on,very sad state of affairs.

The mind boggles as to who else is lurking out there and what the next episode might be.
 
Adam W said:
It does make you wonder, I'd like to think that its nothing unique to birding but i cant help feeling we have more than a fair share of odd balls.

What a shame it is that after quite possibly the best birding year Durham has ever had with so many fantasic birds and birding experiences that we are ending the year with all this ridiculous carry on,very sad state of affairs.

The mind boggles as to who else is lurking out there and what the next episode might be.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the solution is a thread entitled "Durham Cobblers" with a warning that "Everything on this thread is complete rubbish" that is then kept up to date (?!!!) with utterly unbelievable records written up in an utterly believable way. This would set a benchmark for stringers. The key would be anticipating what potential stringers might claim.....

Of course this might be required in other counties than Durham...

John
 
duncan fraser said:
Dear me I wonder what the UK birding scene is saying about us. A long-term hoaxer, SE banned from Birdforum for persistantly badmouthing other birders, a birder who deletes other peoples records at Whitburn Obs (though I haven't seen him for years now, seems to have withdrawn locally after this episode, but still writes in the national birding press I note).
I lived in SE Essex for 2 years and thought the birding scene there was a disaster, but I'm beginning to wonder about the scene here now. Is there something about birding that attracts oddballs, or do all hobbies have this problem?
Still, I guess it keeps us amused - who else is lurking out there to provide the next amusing episode?
Click to expand...

I'd just like to point out that all the recent shenanigans and scandal in the Durham area involves just two people, and all the nonsense going on over the last year or two is not a reflection on the vast majority of birders in the area. Take away the two loose cannons/nutters, 'the scene' is no different to anywhere else.

The true position is often clouded by lies and exaggeration. HoaxerMartin/WoodStork's original thread linked to above is almost a hoax in itself, regards the facts about records being deleted from Whitburn Obs log etc - it has been my local patch since late 2002 and Martin has never watched from the hide, never entered his sightings in the log book and never sent records in to the county bird club. His knickers were in a total twist tightly around his proverbials and it was all paranoid exaggeration in his own mind, triggered by someone asking for more details about a Fea's Petrel claimed by him. This sad episode even resulted in solicitors action being taken against WoodStork for his other actions of libel and defamation of character. We should have all taken more notice of the signs back then and realised what was to come...

[Duncan - you won't have seen Brian Unwin (the target of WoodStork/RokerM in this original epsiode) for a while as he is unfortunately terminally ill - hence him being unable to get out his house.]

Mark
 
Adam W said:
Two people?
Click to expand...

Sorry Adam, maybe wasn't clear there. I was just wanting to point out that Durham wasn't going to rack and ruin as Duncan suggested, but it's just a very very small minority causing local upset in the last year or so - RokerHoaxer and OwlManEvans. I wasn't indicating that two people were involved in the recent Rokergate scandal.
 
Thanks Mark, I see what you mean now.

I think you're right though i cant see that Durham is any worse or even as bad( reading some of the things on here) for this sort of thing than many other counties.
 
Mark Newsome said:
I'd just like to point out that all the recent shenanigans and scandal in the Durham area involves just two people, and all the nonsense going on over the last year or two is not a reflection on the vast majority of birders in the area. Take away the two loose cannons/nutters, 'the scene' is no different to anywhere else.

The true position is often clouded by lies and exaggeration. HoaxerMartin/WoodStork's original thread linked to above is almost a hoax in itself, regards the facts about records being deleted from Whitburn Obs log etc - it has been my local patch since late 2002 and Martin has never watched from the hide, never entered his sightings in the log book and never sent records in to the county bird club. His knickers were in a total twist tightly around his proverbials and it was all paranoid exaggeration in his own mind, triggered by someone asking for more details about a Fea's Petrel claimed by him. This sad episode even resulted in solicitors action being taken against WoodStork for his other actions of libel and defamation of character. We should have all taken more notice of the signs back then and realised what was to come...

[Duncan - you won't have seen Brian Unwin (the target of WoodStork/RokerM in this original epsiode) for a while as he is unfortunately terminally ill - hence him being unable to get out his house.]

Mark
Click to expand...

Hi Mark. A sad day for for North East Birding in so many ways. The Durham scene has changed for the better since regime change in the bird club and recorder several years ago. The LEK magazine is one of the best (if not the best) of its type in the uk. Bird information has been shared at a county/local level and the clubs website is regularly updated. Whitburn obs has the best facilities for seawatching from land anywhere in the uk.

Just a shame that this is now spoilt by the actions of one/two individuals!!

Sorry to hear about Brian Unwins illness. One of the good guys of the North East birding scene.

Regards.



As for the hoaxer
 
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