This needs to be read in the context of the current " Exam Results Meltdown" of August 2020. In our little street, deep in the Flintshire countryside, something strange happened a while ago. I looked out of the back window at my modest garden, and there was an unusual dinky bird in the ivy (which is doing an excellent job of holding the trellis together.) Woo ! So ... I had the bins handy and got a semi-helpful look at it ..... enough to narrow it down a bit ... and then I nipped into the living room, got my camera and scope, and spent the next 1¾ minutes getting some crapsnaps and hastily scribbling a scribbly partially tentative description. Having "showed sparingly" for about 3 minutes, on and off, it disappeared, and I didn't get to see it again. I had a fair idea of what it was, but not 100% certain. I tidied it up, wrote a posh version of what I'd seen, and what I thought it probably was,and sent it off to the Beeby Arsy ( BBRC). What I didn't know until much later was ... that same bird had been seen by other people in the area. And some of them also sent their descriptions in, some good, some less good, some with photos of variable quality and/or drawings, some without. Some were first-timers, some had had previous rarities accepted, some had had rejections ..all human life was there. In a strange way, we'd all "done" the "same exam". Well, nearly the same. But, I wonder, will we all get the same results ? Will we get, for example, the result we "need" ? Or, to put it another way, the result we " deserve" ? There's a lot of "variables" for the "algorithm" to deal with... Some observers had better equipment than me, some worse. Some watched it for longer .. some a lot less. Some had seen that species before, some in other countries as well. Assuming they'd got it right, that is. Some had never seen one, for a whole variety of reasons. Not all of them even had binoculars. Some didn't have a bird book in the house at all, but just new it was something dramatic .... they found out what to do on the net and sent their account in . So ... we don't know yet what will happen. I am eagerly awaiting my positive result. But on the other hand, those other observers might bring an inkling of doubt to the whole event. The dreaded "two-bird" theory, for example. There might have to be a bit of " downgrading." I still haven't had a reply/judgement/scathing rejection. You can't help wondering if some of those "accounts" got accepted, and some got "rejected" ... even though they were all looking at the same thing. Maybe because of "previous track records". Maybe those with "good" track records were favoured. But other didn't. For ,maybe, a variety of good and bad reasons. And there's also the scenario when you got it right, but for the wrong reasons. And maybe, if each account was read by, say, 20 different "experts" some would "pass" it, and some wouldn't. And what about the situation where a submission gets mysteriously lost/misplaced .... But surely that would never happen .... no no no ! And now, this ... a remarkable Noir Désir song ... " Lost" You can't help thinking that some exams don't necessarily do the job they're supposed to do .... not reliably anyway.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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