Something Fishy in Minnesota

Last night, I submitted the following comment to Tom Nelson's blog, in reference to Amy Lester:

I'm just waiting for Lester's head to explode. She is the very definition of "conniption."

This comment was apparently rejected and did not appear on his comment page. However, just a few minutes later, the following comment did appear on the same thread (replying to a comment from someone else):

amy lester said...
"Actually, they didn't see any Blue Jays in the study areas, but they did see Ivory-billeds, so Ivory-billeds being the source of the sounds are more likely. Duh."

Oh yeah, I forgot.

(head explodes)

8:42 PM, September 26, 2006

Whoa there? It appears "Amy Lester" saw my unpublished comment, and "she" replied to it. Who is "Amy Lester?" Does she really exist? She had a presence online before appearing on Tom Nelson's blog, but this incident strongly suggests an extremely intimate connection between her and Nelson. She does not seems to be the independent voice she pretends to be. "Attack Dog" or "Hatchet Woman" seems closer to the truth.

This also begs the question of who ALL of these anonymous and pseudonymous regulars on his blog are. Few if any of them appear to be birders or ornithologists. Nelson is a birder it seems, although his non-IBWO online birding presence is generously described as "skimpy." But the large majority of his anonymous "posse" give little evidence of birding-ness; indeed they seem to look down with disdain and scorn on the fools who actually go in the field with boots and binoculars rather than simply reasoning out the obvious true facts in a nice climate-controlled office. There have been several loud rants about how actual knowledge of birds is totally irrelevent, nay, even a hindrance, to good critical analysis of bird reports.

If one looks at the anonymous comments, it is clear from the writing style and content that he majority of these come from only a very few sources. Everyone who knows the history of this sordid tale knows that one of these is Tom's brother. Another may well be Tom himself. One begins to wonder how many of these voices are really independent from Tom in any meaningful sense of the word. Then we have a couple of pseudonymous regulars. Again, little indication that most of these people actually have much real general knowledge of birds. Several appear to be disgruntled agency types who are pissed off that Cornell stole their thunder and their budget. Several claim a need for anonymity to protect their (highly placed, vitally important) jobs. Yeah sure. Questioning a bird sighting gets you fired from a government wildlife job. I bet.

Overall, I don't get the impression that Tom's anonymous "CLO-sux-big-green-weenies" lynch mob is either drawn from or representative of the community of birders and ornthologists at large. Indeed, they are rather more a gang of "one-thingers" with little if any connection to the larger bird community. They seem actually like an effort to prop up a false image of respectability by swamping the comments with syncophantic drivel. The swarms of "Tom, you da MAN!" postings are supposed to give the impression that Nelson has a large and diverse following. One might wonder... does this constitute fraud?

Oh, and by the way, no anonymous comments to this posting will be allowed.

*********EDIT********** 9/27/06

Tom (in his own comment section) said:

The "head exploding" thing is a complete coincidence as far as I know, unless "Bill" and "Amy" have an "intimate connection".

Oh my god.. the blackouts.. the lost weekends... the strange clothes in the closet... it's true...

I'M AMY LESTER!