Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:08:39 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Norm Saunders Subject: Thoughts on eBird MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I want to thank Scott Crabtree for bringing eBird to our attention again. I remember hearing about eBird and making a mental note to myself to check in in 6 months or so to see how it was doing. This time I did take the time to go to the eBird site and have a good look around. Following my look, I posted a question to the eBird folks about data entry and thus began a very interesting dialog with Mike Powers, the eBird project leader at Cornell Labs. I maintain an electronic database of sightings now and I will continue to keep that database since it has more detailed information than is currently requested by eBird. This isn't to say that I think eBird is a bad idea--I don't and I think it may offer some hope for an online database, updated regularly, that would ultimately replace all the local sightings compilers, etc. Why not write the seasons reports in North American Birds and in MD Birdlife from this online resource, assuming of course that enough people could be convinced to enter their sightings in a timely manner? My query to eBird had to do with what facility existed for doing remote entry of large quantities of already existing sightings data. Mike Powers noted that while this capability isn't yet in place, it's high on his list of priority items. Once this becomes easier to do, I'll be happy to begin loading our personal data base into eBirds and I would hope others here in Maryland would do so as well. To make this new system work for us, we need to use it, we need to populate it with older data, and we need to get MOS and other organizations to actively tout the system. Having said all this, I would note for Scott's benefit, that a lot of folks are already heavily involved in sending their data, either directly or indirectly, to Marshall Iliff (author of the Central East Coast seasons writeup in North American Birds) and to those who are still, I guess, compiling the seasons reports in MD Birdlife. Posting your sightings here on MDOsprey is one very easy way to get that information across. Sending your seasonal MD sightings to Jim Stasz on a periodic basis to include in his massive state data base is another. Many counties in MD have a designated bird records coordinator, as well, to gather data directly from the partcipants or indirectly from MDOsprey and other sources for submission to those noted above. In short, many of us participate already in the gathering of data for analysis. eBird may well be the central repository of the future but there are ways now to get your information put to good use! Thanks again to Scott Crabtree, Mike Powers, and Professor J. V. Remsen for providing me with some fascinating discussion and a well-written article on keeping good field notes. Best, Norm =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Norm Saunders Colesville & West Ocean City, MD marshhawk@att.net=20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================