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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sancho" data-source="post: 3209471" data-attributes="member: 27039"><p>I remember reading in some book about the social history of birding, of a guy in England who took photos of a cardboard cut-out stuck to a branch in a tree, and people going to see it. Rumbled when someone noticed the bird was always in the same pose. Over here (Ireland) there was a case some years ago of someone submitting photos taken abroad as being local photos. I don't want to bring up names, as there are obviously issues that go way beyond birding, but it's nothing new. AFAIK, many museum specimens are also suspect in origin, as the trade in skins was lucrative and specimens taken abroad were often presented as local rarities. I suppose fraud occurs in every hobby - I wonder if train spotters or philatelists make up spoofs to achieve status within their subcultures? Me, all my stringing has been the result of pure incompetence. As a youngster, I 'saw' lots of stuff that wasn't. Four RB flycatchers on a telegraph wire and a supremely dodgy Goshawk spring to mind.</p></blockquote><p></p>