Marshall - I don't recognize Boston Harbor as in the OC count circle.  Better check the ebird data base. Garbage in, garbage out??  :)

Mark H. a/k/a Mr. W.C.
-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Marshall J. Iliff" <> 

> MDOsprey, 
> 
> 
> 
> CBC season starts tomorrow, and despite the poor weather forecast, I hope 
> many of you are able to get out and participate in the counts. 
> 
> 
> 
> For those of you that use eBird (and for those that don't), I wanted to send 
> a quick note about the two programs. YOU CAN ENTER DATA IN BOTH! The 
> Christmas Bird Counts have been running for over 100 years and provide 
> perhaps the longest and largest citizen-science effort ever. Much of the 
> best evidence for the status of winter bird populations in North America 
> comes from these counts and is thanks to the participation of up to 50,000 
> birders annually. eBird (www.ebird.org) hopes to develop a similar pool of 
> participants and is running a complementary effort that is already becoming 
> a sort of "year-round" CBC effort. Like the CBC, it depends on participation 
> from volunteers. 
> 
> 
> 
> Participation in a CBC and eBird are not mutually exclusive, and in fact, 
> the two go hand-in-hand. Please do not hesitate to submit your CBC list in 
> both places! In fact, by entering your day's list in eBird you provide an 
> additional level of detail that would otherwise be lost. Christmas Bird 
> Counts collect data from numerous "areas" or "parties", and then merge the 
> data to give a count of the birds reported for the entire CBC circle (15 
> mile diameter). However, the information about WHERE the birds are occurring 
> within the circle is then lost. If you enter the list for your area as an 
> area search in eBird, the information will also be preserved at the finer 
> geographic scale in the eBird database. This will help to tease out facts 
> like that 31 of the Ocean City CBC Great Cormorants came from Boston Harbor, 
> but one seen flying over the Pocomoke River (where it would be really rare) 
> is shown also. 
> 
> 
> 
> These data are then shared at season's end with the Regional Editors for 
> North American Birds, Bird Observer, etc.-so you don't have to report your 
> noteworthy sightings yet again! 
> 
> 
> 
> If the compiler doesn't have an official form that s/he asks you to use, 
> then, by emailing the list to yourself, you can report the list to the 
> compiler without added effort of copying lists over for your personal notes 
> and for the "official submission". 
> 
> 
> 
> Best, 
> 
> 
> 
> Marshall 
> 
> 
> 
> PS - REALLY ambitious eBirders may want to keep their day list by individual 
> sites within their CBC area. We fully encourage this (the smaller the scale, 
> and the greater number of lists submitted, the better). However, remember to 
> count birds seen while traveling between points for your CBC tally as well! 
> 
> 
> 
> PPS - feel free to contact me with any eBird-related questions 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------- 
> Marshall J. Iliff 
> West Roxbury, MA 
> miliff AT aol.com 
> ------------------------------------------------- 
> eBird/AKN Project Leader 
> Cornell Lab of Ornithology 
> 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd. 
> Ithaca, NY 14850 
> http://www.ebird.org 
> http://www.avianknowledge.net 
> ------------------------------------------------- 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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>