An illiterate bird (in my vocabulary) is one that cannot read the bird books, bar graphs, and/or annotated checklists, so appears way too early, too late, or in the wrong place altogether.
A semi-illiterate bird is one that may be able to read the bird books and checklists, but has difficulty with understanding a calendar or human-generated geographic divisions, so is somewhere a bit early, a bit late, or on the wrong side of an invisible line.
These birds are what give records committees a reason to exist and things to do--like topics to discuss over beer, writing books, updating checklists and re-drawing bar graphs.
Bodacious birding,
Edge Wade
Columbia, MO
On Sep 10, 2015, at 1:04 PM, Larry Lade wrote:
That is a new one for me, a "semi-literate bird". One that can barely read and/or write?
What am I missing here? Is that an "Edge-ism" or "Egg-ism" or ?
Larry Lade
St. Joseph, MO
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