North Bucks
hoaxer
Birding and bird
reporting relies on trust and goodwill. Sometimes honest mistakes are made, but
it is with a great degree of sadness that I write this evening to confirm that
we unfortunately have an active hoaxer in North Bucks.
In recent weeks a "Gary
Tobias" has appeared on twitter and reported a series of scarce local birds,
including his most recent report of a Great White Egret over Caldecotte this
very morning.
Unfortunately "Gary
Tobias" does not exist, and his reports are malicious attempts to mislead the
local birding community, wasting both our time and effort. Other recent tweets
have displayed a more aggressive agenda, including personal slurs and homophobic
references. This is no longer a "bit of fun".
The main bird news
providers, Birdguides and RBA, are fully aware of the situation and will not be
broadcasting any of "Gary's" claims.
This email is provided
to the group for three further reasons.
* Firstly, please be on
your guard and use a degree of scepticism when seeing birds reported from our
area where you do not know the source. It is such a shame that the
bond of goodwill has been challenged in such a way, but an exposed hoaxer will
often find other ways to lash out, so be prepared. This is really unfortunate,
as birds such as the Willen Slav Grebe suffered from this scepticism, showing
that totally unrelated records are tainted by this individuals actions. Equally,
if a report of yours is questioned in any way, please don't be offended. I will
not be texting or emailing any bird news from unknown Twitter sources in
future.
* Secondly, an appeal
to "Gary" to apologise and cease. The show is over, and group members who have
wasted their time and goodwill recently looking for fictitious birds deserve
a whole-hearted apology.
*Finally, this
sensitive subject will undoubtedly and quite understandably provoke a whole
range of reactions from our subscribers. That is entirely understandable, but
please can I strongly appeal that any reaction is confined to private
conversations, and is NOT conducted through the Yahoo groups. This may seem
like unnecessarily harsh censorship, but past experience has shown that when
feelings run high, the groups become overwhelmed with posts, and the
conversations have to be moderated anyway. Let’s not reach that stage, which in
effect is providing oxygen to the fire that “Gary Tobias” has
started.
Many thanks
all,
Simon Nichols
NBBR
Moderator
