BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pshute" data-source="post: 3205373" data-attributes="member: 59235">That was what I was assuming stringing meant - all kinds of sightings the reporter is aware of being invalid, no matter what the method.This particular individual has indeed caused inconvenience to other people seeking the bird. Techniques are alleged to include establishing fake accounts on various systems, then allegedly using them to "report" birds, which the individual would then allegedly "find" (sometimes allegedly not even really visiting the location) then allegedly use other fake accounts to submit reports and sometimes photos from elsewhere that support the earlier sightings. I suspect there is a mixture of phantom birds, real birds that were there but not found, and possibles that were found but not proven. (Have I left out any "allegedly's"?)The inconvenience includes not just the time and money spent seeking phantom birds, but also the time put into investigation of the matter, dealing with the individual, attempting to work out which sightings weren't from real people in order to remove them from records, etc. Plus the future paranoia that will probably be applied to sightings in this country. I've previously been surprised at the level of suspicion applied to sightings in other countries. The honesty system seems to have worked well here till now. I'm wondering if we've now simply arrived where other countries already were, or if this individual has in fact taken us quite a bit further.</blockquote>

Verification