Well that's what I said. Don't stop looking and don't rule any possibility out.
I'm not saying an illogical possibility. Any REASONABLE one.
I try not to discourage any lead, although it was difficult to be polite to the man who had me drop everything and go running up the hill over a woodpecker...
Last weekend, for example, I got no less than FIVE calls on macaws for sale (ALL OF THEM WERE SCARLETS! NOT A SINGLE GREENWING IN THE BUNCH!) I was putting out flyers in the next neighborhood over, and dropped everything, and went running across town, several different times... ONLY TO RUN BACK ACROSS TOWN... Didn't finish until 8:00 p.m. "Sorry for bothering you. I'm looking for a lost greenwing. Someone said you were selling one. Obviously I was misinformed." (Yeah. Five different times.) But thank you for looking... if it was my bird, I need to know this.
Confusing a greenwing and a scarlet isn't the same as confusing a greenwing and a woodpecker!
And like I say, I'd rather chase down a bad lead, than have a lead that was REAL not get reported because the person didn't think it was important.
But I also had someone call me about what turned out to be someone in the neighborhood, who had a pet yellow nape amazon - a bird they'd also had for many years, as in, you saw them with this bird before mine ever went missing, so why did you call me? No. Sorry. I'm not looking for a green bird, a GREEN WING MACAW... LIKE THE ONE IN THE PICTURE ON THE FLYER... ("Oh, that one, no, I didn't see that one. I saw a green bird. Does this mean I don't get the thousand dollars?!")
I mean at least the woodpecker had some red feathers on it! Y'know?!
And one guy I was working in this guys back yard, and I think he has your bird. I heard it... (Yeah. It was a CAG playing in his outdoor flight.) Some of these people are probably deliberately messing with me... (or, I suspect, the homeowner in the case of the CAG.)
Every time I get one of these calls, I jump three feet. Way up, and then crashed to the ground. Followed by nothing. Followed by way up, and then crashed to the ground again. So, it gets very frustrating and exasperating. Not to mention time consuming.
There's an archived add about a greenwing for sale in NEW YORK CITY posted NOVEMBER of 2013... Ummmm.... thank you for the lead, but I lost my bird on April 2, 2016, in San Antonio, Texas. This can't possibly be mine.
BUT YOU CHECK OUT THESE LEADS ANYWAY. YOU HAVE TO!!! BECAUSE ONE OF THESE DAYS IT MIGHT JUST BE MAGGIE'S "HI!" AND HAPPY HEAD BOB ROUTINE...
You worry when you're not getting any leads. But some of these are just blatant wishful thinking on the part of the tipster. I get it, we all want this to have a happy ending, AND EVERYONE is working very hard. AND I AM GRATEFUL... but this is what my life has been like for a month now. Not to discourage anyone from looking... but this is what sifting through the haystack is like, looking for my big red goofy needle... What helps me sift, is looking at posting dates, looking to see if it's actually the right species (although we did get the Military Macaw home, so THAT owner was very grateful, and thank you for that!) things like that really are helpful in cutting down the false leads.
That's all I'm saying...
AND I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DO APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU HELPING WITH THIS, IT'S JUST A DIFFICULT THING TO DEAL WITH ON THE DAILY...
While it's possible that someone found my bird in San Antonio, then drove it or shipped it cross country, and is now selling it at a flea market in Des Moines, Iowa... in all probability, that's not my bird.
That's all I was saying.
Hopefully I haven't just alienated everyone who was helping me look... NOT WHAT I MEANT... I'm just venting my frustration more than anything. This is what life is likely to be like for the near future.
And if I come off as an A****** right now, it's probably the fatigue factor.