Who are the San Diego Virtual Ornithologists?

San Di·e·go [San Dee-egg-oh]  noun 1.  A nice place ... that was so much nicer before most of the current population showed up in the latter decades of the 20th century, and before it was discovered by the unwashed masses of the Greater Los Angeles Basin as a relatively cheap, quick getaway from the bunghole in which they live and work.

Vir·tu·al  [vur-choo-uhl] adjective  1.  Being such in power, force, or effect, though not actually or expressly – e.g., such: a virtual dependence on objective reality.

Or·ni·thol·o·gists [awr-nuh-thol-uh-jists]  pl. noun  1.  Ornithologists study birds, but there is no clear job description for the practice.  2.  An ornithologist may practice professionally or informally (see, e.g., Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) at 01:14:24 (MRS. BUNDY:  "I have seen jays doing everything it is conceivable for jays to do. Ornithology happens to be my avocation, Miss Daniels.").

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MISSON:

To get people's heads out of their atlases, and to get them looking at what's actually happening around them.

CREDOS:

Virtual Ornithologists understand that yesterday's hard-won personal knowledge, range map, or bird atlas may have been rendered virtually (there's that word again!) obsolete by changing global, regional, or local conditions brought on by climate change, human development, species overcrowding, food-supply failure, or myriad other factors.

Virtual Ornithologists know that perceived knowledge about the migration, distribution, and behavior of birds is never absolute.  It has always been, and will always be, subject to limits on data-gathering fiscal and human resources, physical or legal limits on access to all parts of any geographic terrain, and sometimes because the %$#&ing bird simply never called or came out of that %$#&ing hedgerow!

Virtual Ornithologists comprehend that collecting bird data always requires some quantum of subjective data – that it is often impracticable to actually count all birds in a flock, hard to identify a particularly young or odd-looking individual, and humanly impossible to perfectly enter all collected data error-free in a database. 

Virtual Ornithologists understand that the best source of information is the individual on the ground, and that it is the height of arrogance and hubris to interpose one's own judgment for any but the most absurd bird reports (e.g., a wild Emperor Penguin in the Mohave Desert!).  And when such an interposition is made, it should be done only by officially sanctioned bodies (e.g., the California Bird Records Committee) following clear and objective review guidelines, and as free as is humanly possible of ego-driven speculation, jealousy, or personal animosity.

Virtual Ornithologists strive for an ethics-based approach to birding that doesn't glorify, first and foremost, seeing in person the most birds in one year, one county, one lifetime, etc.  In other words, we recognize that all those birds are or are not objectively "out there" – whether or not we personally see them ... or not.

Virtual Ornithologists recognize that in many instances, (more on that soon!), most rare or unusual birds would be better of if we just stayed put.  (Think carbon footprints, clogged roads, smog, stress on the bird, etc., etc., etc.).  The real trick is to figure out how to balance our natural desires as birders, with the needs of the birds we want so badly to see.