I have checked with Marshall Iliff, who is not only a sometime
Maryland birder, but one of the principal architects and operators of
eBird, on the subject of the two separate "hotspots" for Hughes
Hollow that Paul Woodward is concerned about, per his recent post to MDOsprey.
Marshall and I both agree with Paul that birders who submit
observations to eBird that were taken at Hughes Hollow in Montgomery
County should use the eBird Shared Location called "Hughes Hollow -
McKee Beshers WMA."
The other close by Shared Location, called "Hughes Hollow", is a
perfectly valid location, but contains far fewer data than the one
with the longer name. Ideally it should not exist, but eBird does
not currently have the software to eliminate it and combine the
sightings with the longer established "Hughes Hollow - McKee Beshers WMA."
Those of you on this list-serv who bird at Hughes Hollow are
earnestly requested to use the longer established Shared Location,
whether or not you actually bird all over the WMA (which is very
large). If you look for the location in eBird's "Find it on a Map"
facility, you will see that the location with McKee Beshers in the
name is located farther south on the Google map that the "Hughes
Hollow" location. Clicking on the relevant "stickpin" on the map
gives you the assigned name of the location.
Anyone confused by the above or who has additional questions or
comments should contact me off-line. I assist eBird on a voluntary
basis to assess recommendations for new Hotspots in Maryland, which
continue to flow in regularly. One of the things eBird tries hard
not to do is to set up duplicate locations, which cannot currently be
removed once established.
Mike Bowen
Bethesda, MD
At 12:09 PM 4/20/2008 -0400, Paul Woodward wrote:
> For people who have a particular interest in the Hughes Hollow
> area, it is encouraging to see more people using E-bird to enter
> their sightings for McKee-Beshers WMA (Hughes Hollow) in Montgomery
> County. However, recently these records have become more
> fragmented and harder to find. For some inexplicable reason Hughes
> Hollow has been duplicated as a "Hot Spot" and someone has created
> a personalized Hughes Hollow E-bird site, all of which makes it
> harder to find all the records.
> In the early days of E-bird you could find a map of the
> general McKee-Beshers area with all the locations (Hot Spots and
> personalized ones) marked so all the records could be seen. But
> now this function no longer exists, and it is much harder to get an overview.
> I'd like to suggest that bird sightings for Hughes Hollow
> (McKee-Beshers) be entered under the Hot Spot "Hughes
> Hollow-McKee-Beshers WMA". I, for one, have great interest in the
> area. I find the sightings of others at Hughes Hollow to be of
> great interest, and I thank all who put their lists on E-bird.
>Thanks,
>
>Paul Woodward
>Fairfax City, VA
>
D.H. Michael Bowen
8609 Ewing Drive
Bethesda, MD 20817
Telephone: (301) 530-5764
e-mail: dhmbowenATyahooDOTcom |