[Birdtalk] Comment on recent rarities

[Tim Avery]

I think this is a great thread and thus far has produced some interesting
points.  And following Matt's very informative post, I will use the opportunity
to point out one of the "newer" fronts for helping with the "citizen
scientists" information gathering.  That in the birding community, being
ebird.org.  Talk about a great piece of programming, provided free to the
entire world to track your own bird sightings, as well as that of others.  I
was put onto ebird by Colby right after college, but didn't seriously start
using it till I lived in Indiana.  I am a fanatic lister as many of you know,
but I am also a techno-geek and much prefer computers to notebooks (granted I
have a fair share of field notebooks from the past). ebird has created a place
for me, and anyone, to enter their bird sightings, and keep track of them, with
simplicity and ease.

One can go as far as to provide #'s of species, for every location birded in a
day, to a bird list for a general area, no numbers needed at all.  Not everyone
is into counting birds, and listing, but for those who are, it provides a great
way to track that information, and provide it to a database, that is slowly
generating information about birds across the world.  Here in Utah, there are
several individuals who regularly submit to ebird, helping to create the data
pool that may eventually be used to show trends in populations, and any number
of other scientific purposes.  One thing that I have found of use, and relating
back to Matt's post, is the fact that it provides dates for arrivals, and
departures.  It can show high counts, total #'s of birds, average numbers over
a period of time, etc.

For personal birding lists, ebird is a fantastic tool.  There are hundreds of
already loaded birding "hot spots", where you can enter data.  But you can also
create your own private birding locations to enter data for as well.  In the
end, the program calculates that information into county lists, state lists, US
lists, etc.  It keeps track of your monthly numbers, and yearly numbers, as
well as a "life list", for all of the above mentioned lists.  It is truly a
listers dream program.

Many states have started local ebird.org projects.  I was checking out ebird.org
Wisconsin last night which was currently keeping track of the most productive
counties for birds during fall migration.  I am truly impressed with the
system, and think it is by far one of the greatest modern contributions to
"citizen science".

Now that this has turned into a novel, I will end asking those who haven't to
check out ebird.org.  Even if you don't get out to bird that often, entering
your daily yard list is something that ebird.org is useful for.  The more
people that use ebird to enter data, or lists, the more information that can be
assembled, and used by others down the line.  I would urge anyone that keeps
track of the birds they see, to give ebird a try.  Not only will it track your
bird sightings, but it will provide information for others down the line.  What
a fantastic tool!

Cheers

Tim
Salt Lake City, UT
tanager at timaverybirding.com
http://www.timaverybirding.com
http://www.timavery.com


Quoting mjw22 at comcast.net:

> Steve makes some very good points with this one.  It truly is amazing how an
> active bunch of birders (I don't think Steve was going for a comprehensive
> list...just a recent highlight reel) can shed some good light on what species
> are actually here rather than what species people actually see.
>
> This discussion ties in nicely with the earlier request for an
> arrivals/departures list for summer residents (or even winter residents).  I
> spent a couple of years at Cornell birding the Cayuga Lake basin where there
> is a very active birding community.  Colby did some time there as well...but
> just after I left.  The birders in "The Basin" have kept dilligent records on
> when the first spring sighting of some of the "true" and "complete" migrants
> in the area (something like the list that was suggested for Utah).  I think
> this goes back 30+ years.  Not surprisingly, in recent years, many birds have
> been seen earlier than the historical averages.  Answering the question of
> "why" is a problem of too many variables.  Not only that but different
> variables are at work with different species.
>
> I knew someone who was doing some research on this and other arrival data.
> It became quickly apparent that simply saying "It's global warming." was
> gross oversimplification.  Today, birders are armed with better knowledge of
> species and haunts, better ID skills thanks to (Kauffman, Sibley, ABA, etc.),
> free time, willingness and desire to bird hard, high powered scopes, widely
> available and better binoculars (and now digital cameras which help immensely
> for documenting official first records). Couple that with the information
> contained in forums like these and the fact that there are just more birders
> than there used to be and one could stage a pretty good argument (as Steve
> has) that SOME of the observed changes have more to do with the birders than
> the birds.
>
> Even back east, the Patagonia Rest Stop (AZ) phenomenon was widely known.
> Where birders go, that's where they find the birds...and quite often the very
> good ones.  When we "chase" the birds that others so graciously find and
> report (a critical component to any recordkeeping effort), we become part of
> that and report even more birds. Some of those "secondary" sightings may be
> new for the area, late for the season or even more rare than the original
> bird that was the object of the chase.  Think Fish Springs a few months ago.
>
> It's a fascinating topic.  I'm sure some clever researchers are working hard
> to come up with ways to filter out all those confounding variables to make
> the data collected by  "citizen scientists" even more valuable and
> meaningful.   Perhaps they've even have a handle on a few...we do record
> "birds per party-hour" on the CBC's...but along comes the newer frontiers of
> radar ornithology, night flight call detection and others I likely omit out
> of ignorance to add more variables and knowledge to the mix.
>
> Thanks to Steve for bringing this up and to the others who have been birding
> so hard of late.  It makes for some interesting reports and even encourages
> those who don't get out as much to do a little chasing.  Who knows what we'll
> find?
>
> Good Birding,
> Matt Williams
> Midvale, UT
>
>
>