eBirders of the Month

2010 October - Renée Cormier

Renée Cormier supervises the internship program at the Palomarin Field Station run by PRBO Conservation Science at Point Reyes, California.  For the last 45 years, this internship program has trained more than 400 aspiring field biologists from 20 countries on how to conduct ornithological research.  As part of the training program, Renée helps the interns generate daily bird lists for every location they visit – usually two per day – and then instructs them on how to enter these lists into eBird.  As a result, Palomarin biologists have been responsible for submitting more than 3,000 checklists over the last seven years.  Not only has this work resulted in tens of thousands of records, but it has introduced many future ornithologists and conservation biologists to eBird. The commitment that Renée and other biologists at PRBO have to eBird provides an example of how eBird can be incorporated into the day to day activities of training programs and field stations to build the eBird database and introduce new users to the program. As you read about how Renée uses eBird at the Palomarin Field Station, we hope you will consider how you might be able to use eBird in similar situations in your local area.

Team eBird would like to welcome Renée Cormier as our October eBirder of the month. Her dedication to eBird, and her ability to inspire and introduce young field biologists to the project, has led to an excellent data set for the Point Reyes area. Additionally, her work has led to the fostering of many new eBirders who will apply these same principles as they move forward in their ornithological careers. By helping new scientists get hands-on training with eBird, Renée is helping establish links between eBird and the future careers of young ornithologists around the world. We thank you Renée for your commitment to eBird, and for your hard work over the past seven years. Congratulations!

Name: Renée Cormier (representing PRBO Conservation Science’s Palomarin Field Station)

Residence: Pt. Reyes National Seashore, California

Years eBirding: 7

eBird Life list: 227



Number of complete eBird Checklists: 3136

From Renée,

When I came to the Palomarin Field Station as an intern in 2002, we were already keeping daily bird lists for each of our mist netting sites, and had been since the field station was established in 1966.  So when eBird was developed, entering these lists was the obvious thing to do.  Sure, it takes a little bit more work, but it makes some of the data we collect immediately available to a much larger audience – and that’s important.

What’s also important is that all of our interns (about 15 each year) are introduced to what eBird is and how to use it.  After leaving Palomarin, interns go on to other field jobs, graduate schools, or a variety of other work and travel.  No matter what they do, most continue to view eBird as a great way to track all of the birds they encounter along the way, and they share this message with others.

We collect lists for every field site we visit, including Palomarin, Muddy Hollow, Pine Gulch, Redwood Creek, and Laguinitas Creek.  These sites are all in a relatively small area of Marin County, just north of San Francisco, California, but there are still some interesting differences among them.  

In addition to entering our data into eBird, we encourage our interns to think about creative ways that they can use eBird to learn more about the birds we study.  Each fall, we look forward to the return of Golden-crowned Sparrows that overwinter in the coastal scrub around the field station.  This year, we’ve been monitoring their southward migration with eBird. We want to compare our first record of the species with other first records throughout the broader West.

eBird provides a great set of tools for field stations and other training programs that teach participants about birds.  It provides an easy way to record observations, and then make these data available to a wider audience.  It’s a great way to demonstrate the power of citizen science and observation networks to our interns.  Moreover, our interns are able to use the eBird visualization tools to put our local observations into a larger context, thereby helping them learn more about the birds of Palomarin and how they relate to birds elsewhere in the region.   

 

2010 September - Amy McDonald

 

 

Please join us in congratulating Amy McDonald as our September eBirder of the Month. The success of eBird depends on the engagement and participation from our community, not only for checklist submissions, but for  help with the record review process, application of standards to eBird hotspots, feedback and suggestions, and ideas for the future. Few individuals have contributed so much to all of these arenas as Amy and we'd like to thank her publicly for all the volunteer time that she has put in on behalf of eBird (not to mention her unflagging commitment to contribute data from Hungary, Bolivia, or her favorite local Alameda County shorebird spots).

Few people have so enthusiastically volunteered their personal time for eBird as Amy. Amy began birding in 2001 and discovered eBird in the summer of 2006. Over the next year she became more and more committed to using eBird locally around the South Bay (South San Francisco Bay that is) area and also to entering her older observations.

Name: Amy McDonald

Residence: San Jose, California

Years eBirding: 4

eBird Life list: 1897

ABA Life List: 647



Number of complete eBird Checklists: 1330

Number of countries in eBird: 11 (and counting), from all four hemispheres

Amy describes her eBirding:

"What originally drew me to eBird nearly four years ago was the concept of a shared, web-based database to which all birders could contribute, from backyard birdwatchers to world-class experts. With less effort than I was expending to enter my sightings stored on my home computer, my records would now be available to me wherever I went, and become part of a consolidated database of sightings collected from eBirders around the world.
With the first checklist I submitted, I was hooked. Who would have thought that counting thousands of Willets could be fun? I began submitting more and more checklists each time I went birding, counting every bird in sight, making just one more quick stop before heading home, and feeling a twinge of guilt if I neglected to submit a checklist for that Red-shouldered Hawk I saw on my drive to work.

So when Brian Sullivan asked if I’d be interested in helping out on the eBird project, it was easy to say yes. As an eBird volunteer, I work on hotspot requests, review flagged records, and pretty much do anything I can to help and encourage the eBirders I work with to have as much fun using eBird as I do, while submitting lots of checklists of course.

I could also elaborate on how I have personally benefited from my involvement with eBird; becoming a more careful and patient birder, meeting new birding friends, and discovering dozens of new places to bird. But I just heard my first-of-season Golden-crowned Sparrow for my yard, so I must submit an eBird checklist right away. Thanks Team eBird for acknowledging my efforts!"

 

Team eBird can't help but take this opportunity to elaborate on how Amy's involvement has made eBird better for everyone.

In July 2007, when an eBird editor was needed for the South Bay counties of Santa Clara and Alameda, Amy was willing to step up to help. As an editor she has enthusiastically taken on the joint roles as curator of eBird data quality, as well as teacher and mentor for the eBirders that submit from her area. Rather than simply helping us to identify potential errors and keep the master database clean, Amy takes the time to email contributors personally to help them through identification pitfalls and to explain the relative status of things like Brandt's Cormorants and July Dunlin in the south San Francisco Bay area. Through her post as reviewer, she also serves as a promoter of better eBirding, and regularly helps people to learn how to use eBird in better ways that will be more valuable for science.

About a year-and-a-half later, Team eBird made a call for help managing hotspots. Not only were hotspot requests piling up and needing attention, but existing hotspots were increasingly in need of locational adjustments, name tweaks, and even merges. Amy volunteered for the entire state of California (and later helped with Oregon and other surrounding states) and took on the job of standardization with a vengeance. Her commitment to standards within the definition and naming of hotspots in California has been exemplary. Although California has over 5000 hotspots (and counting), thanks to Amy's efforts these are some of the most accurate and consistently named hotspots in eBird. The amount of time needed to accomplish this should not be underrated, and we are extremely thankful to Amy for her enthusiasm on this.

As a technical writer in Palo Alto, she has a thorough understanding of technology and often has useful insight on how better to convey a new eBird feature, or how better to explain the fundamentals of eBird. We are always grateful for her edits and insight. In fact, we invite anyone with ideas on how to improve eBird to let us know at ebird@cornell.edu -- we can only make eBird better if we know what the features are that our community cares about.

Finally, Amy is a self-described eBird addict. She describes her obsession in her own words above, but we are especially impressed by her commitment to using eBird on organized birding tours. On a recent trip to Bolivia, she stayed up late each night reconciling her notes in the field with her GPS readings, and carefully compiling complete checklists for each stop. For anyone who has been on an organized birding tour, you will understand what a commitment this is: days tend to be long, multiple stops are often covered in a day, and the number of new and dazzling species is dizzying to keep up with. And, of course, after Amy's hard work on the Bolivia tour, the tour leaders (Dan Lane and George Armistead) were more than happy to get shared checklists from Amy!

Thanks Amy from Team eBird for all your hard work!

 

 

2010 August - Fabrice Schmitt

 

Name: Fabrice Schmitt

Residence: Providencia, Chile

Years eBirding: 3.5

eBird Life list: 1355

Number of eBird Locations: 445



Number of complete eBird Checklists: 801

We are very pleased to introduce this month's eBird of the month, Fabrice Schmitt of Providencia, Chile. Fabrice has led our efforts in Chile, and  spearheaded our efforts in much of South America. Who better to introduce Fabrice than the author of Birds of Chile, Alvaro Jaramillo, who nominated Fabrice as our eBirder of the month.

From Alvaro Jaramillo:

While getting to know the birds of Chile over the years I met birders in the country here and there, all doing their own thing sometimes in their own little patch. Communication between birders was not well developed, and there was a pattern of people keeping information to themselves. This began to change, slowly at first and then several younger birders truly revolutionized birding in Chile seemingly overnight. This new set of birder was interested in communication, keeping information freely flowing, and including all in the pursuit of birds, beginner to pro. At the forefront of what you have to call a “movement” was a Frenchman with a German name, Fabrice Schmitt. As is often the case someone from the outside often has the chance to really shake things up as their experience is different and complementary to what is going on internally, and this is what Fabrice has done for Chilean birding. Since Fabrice has been around in Chile, we now have quick online communication via the online obschile list, many weekend bird outings, we have an online journal (Chiricoca) with birdfinding information, rare bird summaries, conservation notes, and even articles on Chilean lizards and bats! We have a new club, the ROC (Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Sylvestre de Chile or Network of Bird and Wildlife Watchers of Chile), which is promoting innovative ideas bringing birding, conservation and ornithology forward a few more notches. Fabrice has been instrumental in helping, starting, and cheerleading for all of these innovations and certainly new ones to come in the future. Chile is lucky that a skilled, energetic set of talented birders were able to connect with Fabrice, I think the word is overused, but the synergy has been fantastic! Because of these folks now my book on the birds of Chile seems seriously outdated, but in the end that was the point. I nominate Fabrice as eBirder of the month as representative of the new Chilean birder, plugged in, eBirding away like mad and adding knowledge to a distant corner of the earth faster than anyone ever thought possible!

From Fabrice:

Living in a South American country, Chile, where basic information about birds is still weak, eBird is definitely a wonderful way to increase our knowledge about our country’s birds! After I moved to Chile 5 years ago, I met some birders interested in developing a data collection/sharing system. Discouraged by a lack of funding for these kinds of projects (typical in South America!), we decided to collect data on an excel sheet. The prehistoric way…

Fortunately, Alvaro Jaramillo, author of the excellent “Birds of Chile” field guide and wellknown birder (and eBirder!), quickly put us in touch with the eBird team. It took a few months of work by the friendly eBird administrators and our Chilean team of Rodrigo Barros, Pablo Cáceres, Fernando Díaz, Alvaro Jaramillo and Ricardo Matus (all members of the ROC (Red de Observationes de Chile), a recently created NGO), but by mid-2009 the eBird-Chile portal was operational. So far, more than 70,000 observations have been collected in eBird Chile—something that would have been unbelievable just a few months ago!!

And the results obtained from these data are already impressive! The new maps available directly from eBird provide the best available distribution information for many species -- better than any published paper! The arrival and departure dates of migrants, information that is unpublished for most species migrating to Chile, is now available to anyone in the world! Where else but eBird would you find that the Giant Hummingbird arrives in central Chile by the end of July?

Along with other Chilean ornithologists, we are already dreaming of a way of running a Breeding Bird Atlas-- using eBird of course--that would be another huge step forward in the knowledge of our birds!

eBird in Chile not only increases our knowledge and ability to do research, but also plays a critical role in conservation. For example, working on the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) project lead by BirdLife, the data provided by eBird have been extremely important for the designation of some areas. Some IBAs have been proposed only thanks to the data provided by eBird, and hopefully tomorrow they will be formally protected. Personally, I can’t see a better use of my data than conservation. And when I know that my sightings will be used by conservationists, I just want to take my bins and go birding!

I also greatly appreciate eBird’s ability to bring people from around the world together. It is amazing to see people from the north or the south of the country, yesterday without any kind of relation, and now all eBird friends, sharing sightings and competing on the Top100! Muy buena onda! Leading birding trips all over South America, I also try to submit the sightings I do during these trips. Unfortunately, due to a lack of time, it is not always possible to do so and in the end many records are lost. But during one of my last trip to northern Peru, the participants themselves sent the sightings from our trip to eBird and shared the sightings with me! It was phenomenal to bird with these eBirders, all in the California Top100 and all taking notes, GPS locations and counting the birds we saw on every stop. It brought more purpose to our trips, added to the fun and was great to finally share our sightings on eBird!! With eBird, you can now travel all over the world, and share your sightings with a worldwide community. Amazing!!

 

2010 July - Mike San Miguel

Name: Mike San Miguel

Residence: Arcadia, CA

Years Birding: 48

eBird Life List: 1294

Number of complete checklists: 4250

 

It is with equal parts pride and sadness that we introduce Mike San Miguel as our July “eBirder of the Month”. Mike helped build the popular birding scene in California throughout the 1960s and 70s, and was instrumental in developing the Western Field Ornithologists into the vibrant organization it is today. He was a tireless environmentalist, a loving family man, and an absolutely passionate eBirder. Mike died tragically from a fall down a steep cliff on the night of July 14th while conducting Spotted Owl surveys in the San Gabriel Mountains. He was 70 years old. Below we offer three tributes to Mike: one from all of us at eBird, one from long-time birding friend Kimball Garrett, and one from his son Mike San Miguel Jr.

From Team eBird:

Mike was an incredible guy, immediately open and embracing of the concepts of eBird, and able to see the big picture and the important potential of organizing data gathered by birders. From the outset he was one of eBird’s earliest and strongest proponents, leading by example, while actively encouraging and helping others to do the same. Not only did he faithfully enter all of his recent bird observations into eBird, but he pulled his old notebooks off the shelf and entered as many checklists as he could dating back to his first birding experience with Dave De Sante at “Rim of the World” on Highway 18 in San Bernardino County, CA, 9 November 1963. His eBird notes from the day say it all:

“Roadside birding at approximately 4,000 ft. elevation. This was my introduction to birding by Dave De Sante. The study of the mixed flock of Cedar Waxwings and Evening Grosbeaks feeding on Toyon berries made a lasting impression that got me started on my lifelong love of birds.”

Another checklist from just a few months later on the Carrizo Plain IBA, 15 March 1964, tells us something about the developing birding scene at the time, Mike’s growing love of birds, but perhaps more about his love of life and his general good nature:

“We had driven my Volkswagen and were very low on fuel. We found a ranch yard (the one with the California Condor) with a fuel tank and looked for someone who might be able to sell us some gasoline, but no one was around. Fortunately the tank was not locked and I helped myself, and we were very happy to leave some money with a note explaining our situation. This was not a place to run out of gas! We found the California Condor at dusk in the ranch yard sitting on a short stump. When we approached the bird it struggled to take flight and eventually it landed on another post where we left it for the night. This was an amazing experience and one I'll never forget.”

Many years later Mike discovered eBird, and he dove into it with his typical fervor. First he simply entered all the observations he could, but that wasn’t enough for him. He stepped up and offered even more of his time and energy as a volunteer data reviewer for San Bernardino County, California. He worked in this capacity alone, and then along with Tom Benson for many years, and we appreciate his efforts in making eBird as good as it is in that county today.

Last winter Mike took it upon himself to find out how important the California Aqueduct through the Antelope Valley was as waterfowl habitat, so he spent a few days stopping at every place where a public road crossed the aqueduct, and surveyed the birds that could be seen from each crossing. He then entered ALL of the data into eBird (establishing an impressive string of new localities).  An effort is underway to honor Mike by establishing an annual aqueduct waterbird count, revisiting all of his localities and entering all the data into eBird.

But more than anything Mike touched us, and all who knew him, as a great person, quick with a smile and a kind word. All three eBird project leaders knew Mike personally, and our deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends. He will be missed.

Team eBird

 

From Kimball Garrett, a long-time friend and colleague:

 

Birders,

Most of you are familiar with Mike's accomplishments in the world of field ornithology. He was a long-time bird bander with a bug for gathering good bird data. He was an extraordinary connoisseur of rare birds, finding a great many of them and enjoying trips all over California to chase them. His experience and talent earned him a place for several years on the California Bird Records Committee, and he was one of the best ambassadors the Committee ever had. He served Western Field Ornithologists in many important capacities, culminating in a several year stint as President during which the organization gained new vibrancy and scope. He had an important role in the production of the CBRC's book "Rare Birds of California" and published several papers in WFO's journal Western Birds. He embraced eBird with unbridled enthusiasm (...he did so much with unbridled enthusiasm) and has entered more eBird data from California (4245 checklists) than almost any other individual as well as editing submissions from several counties. He did a heroic amount of fieldwork and paperwork for the Los Angeles Breeding Bird Atlas and other large-scale data gathering projects. In short, Mike was not only about the most active birder I have ever known, but he was also the most enthusiastic birder - he loved being in the field whether alone or with his many friends, and he enjoyed learning something new every outing.

But I can hardly think about Mike the birder right now, because birding was only his second passion. Mike was the consummate family man, and the love he and Gayle showed so openly and generously for each other was nothing short of inspirational. His son Michael (also one of California's most accomplished birders) and daughter Lisa were everything to Mike, and if he wasn't the world's greatest grandfather he was certainly in the running for that title. Many birders don't realize that Mike virtually stopped birding for many years to be the best possible father to his growing children, and even after he resumed birding with more zeal and passion than ever he was always talking about his children and, eventually, grandchildren.

Those who knew Mike well, and a great many who didn't, were keenly aware of Mike's tireless work for bird and wildlife habitat conservation. We all try to be good conservationists, and we're all keenly aware of the problems birds and their habitats face. On my countless wonderful trips in the field with Mike the conversation would inevitably turn, and pretty quickly, to the inexorable loss of bird habitats as urban areas continued to grow and consume the places we enjoyed going. I would gripe and curse and feel generally pessimistic about everything, but Mike had a different and much more effective approach - he got involved. If he enjoyed birding in an area, he felt it was his responsibility to work as hard as he could to make sure it was preserved or restored for birds and birders. His career working in environmental work for Southern California Edison no doubt had a positive impact on southern California habitats. His efforts for bird habitat at Piute Ponds, the San Gabriel River, and so many other areas we take for granted have been heroic. His battles with agencies that were damaging habitat were fought with fervor but also with grace - even the Army Corps of Engineers must have had great respect for Mike. When Mike had a conservation mission he was almost unstoppable, and the world is much better for that passion of his.

Mike loved so many good things in life - as well as good people - that I'll be reminded of him constantly. Watching the hummingbirds in my yard, following the annual demise of the Dodgers, hearing about that next rare bird, seeing the trees and shrubs he has nurtured in so many places mature and thrive, enjoying a meal. How could I not think of Mike. And right now, Mike's passion for really good wine seems like an appropriate way to honor him - I think I'll open a good one from Paso Robles and toast one of the most generous and enjoyable people I have ever met. I'll miss you, Mike!

Kimball L. Garrett

Section of Ornithology

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

900 Exposition Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

213-763-3368

kgarrett@nhm.org

 

From Mike San Miguel Jr.:

I use eBird, more often than not, as a good resource for reminiscing about the good times had while birding. Here is a conversation I am having in my head with my Father just a week after his death.

“Hey Man. I was just going through some of the eBird lists you shared with me and it jogged my memory of when we used to go birding when I was a kid in the 1970s. Do you remember searching for California Condors near Mt. Pinos? We spent all day on that overlook with a ton of other birders. We finally got to see three soaring high. That was awesome!! Oh, and what about the nights in the late spring at Furnace Creek Ranch sleeping on the golf course, or the trips to the Salton Sea searching for the famous White Ibis or all those Blue-footed and Brown Boobies. I remember when you drug me out of bed one morning in the spring of 1978 to head up to Morongo Valley for my life Zone-tailed Hawk. Remember it had a snake in its talons!!! And what about the Bohemian Waxwings near Valyermo in 1977, or the Malibu King Eider in 1974? Or the infamous Tish Tang nightmare where I scared Pinto and everyone else in the campground! Ha!

Those were amazing times, man! I am sure glad I got to spend that day with you in 1992 when we birded Bolsa Chica and Upper Newport Bay. Thanks for sharing that list with me! It rekindled our passion for birds! I just pulled up another list you shared with me from 1995 at Galileo. Dude, what a day that was!! Blue-winged, Golden-winged Warbler, Yellow-green Vireo!! We had fourteen species of warbler that day! Or what about that day in 2006 when we racked up all those San Bernardino County birds! You know, that day I called you in a panic because I had a Streak-backed Oriole at Zzyzx!! What about the time in 1997 when we had the Purple Gallinule, Sprague’s Pipit, and Smith’s Longspur at Furnace Creek. Holy Cow, that was an amazing few days. Are you ever going to enter all the Big Day data from 2007? 224 species in one day…..in one county!! That was amazing. Oh, what about the big day we did with Kimball when we had that Archilochus hummingbird at Malibu Lagoon. Remember, Kimball dropped his scope and we never saw it again?

 

Hey man, I miss you! I wish I could share some of the lists I have recently entered on eBird, or just call you on the phone to let you know some of the stuff I am finding at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont! I am going to miss birding with you in the backyard; looking at the Hummingbird feeders, or scouring the sky looking for Black Swifts. I am going to miss birding with you at the Newport Pier, or Rancho De Nada, or Furnace Creek Ranch. Thankfully, I have a load of memories to keep your spirit alive, and lots of shared eBird entries to relive all of those fantastic times we used to bird.

I love you Dad!”

Michael J. San Miguel, Jr.

La Verne, CA

 

2010 June - Matt Garvey

 

Name: Matt Garvey

Residence: Brookline, MA

Years eBirding: 3

eBird Life list: 578

Post Office Square (site survey) Life list: 79

# of complete checklists at Post Office Square: 569 (!)

 

Matt was selected this month for several reasons, but we'd like to specially highlight two. First, his account below should make it clear that eBird thrives on commitment to any site survey, no matter where it is. eBird submissions need not be from Cape May or Point Reyes, since eBirding of your backyard, favorite park, or even your walk to work, can be just as valuable, if not more so (after all, other birders are likely to have Cape May pretty well covered!).

Second, as June gives way to July, consider Matt's commitment to birding his patch in mid-summer, and see what evidence of bird movement you can find locally in your area during these "summer doldrums". eBird usage drops to a low point during the hot summer, and for this reason there is much to be learned about local movements of landbirds during this time when many birders concentrate on shorebirds or stay inside in the air conditioning!

 

From Matt:

eBirding has proven a great catalyst for me to get out and record what I see, even if all I may be able to do on a given day is a short five or ten-minute hit to a tiny patch near my office. Although a long-time birder, my notekeeping had been poor and sporadic until, with some nudging by Marshall Iliff, I became a devoted eBirder. What I love about eBird is how with enough data you can discern some incredibly cool patterns, and you get a very tangible sense of how you're contributing to the public's body of knowledge on bird distribution.

Case in point is data from Post Office Square, a tiny 1.7 acre park in downtown Boston bounded by blocks of tall concrete and glass buildings. It's not most birder's ideal place for a local patch, but with an intense office job as an attorney (plus dad duties on the homefront), a visit there was about all I could sneak in most days. (I've since switched jobs and am searching for a suitable patch or two in my new, more suburban, office grounds.)  It was easy enough to get to Post Office a few spring and fall days each year in hopes of finding a rarity, but it wasn't until Marshall convinced me to religiously eBird the park that I really got the motivation to put in a few extra minutes each day, no matter the season, to see what was around and to document it in eBird. And the more lists I generated and cool data points I was able to enter, the more I wanted to get there to record some more.

Post Office Square is a classic migrant trap, with no contiguous woods and no breeding species save Rock Pigeons, House Sparrows, American Robins and House Finches. Herring Gulls are regular flyovers, Great Black-backed Gull and Peregrine Falcon fly over less regularly, and White-throated Sparrows try to over-winter, but that's about it. Everything else is on the move, and thus each day's list provides a pretty good slice of what birds are in motion. In fact, with regular coverage of Post Office, because the place is so small and easy to bird thoroughly, you can get a good idea of exactly when each bird arrived.

I found the very few mid-summer migrants--I use this term loosely to refer to any bird moving at least far enough to need a refueling in Post Office--to be especially fascinating finds over my years birding there. I expected some August warblers and to get a frustratingly brief look at an August empid, but three different Carolina Wrens between mid-July and mid-August, an early July Brown-headed Cowbird and an early August Red-winged Blackbird were less expected. I was especially surprised by a mid-July Downy Woodpecker, a late-August Song Sparrow, and multiple Dark-eyed Junco records from mid-August through early September. eBird was a great motivator in getting me out poking around even on hot, bird-light days, and I'm glad I did as most of these birds would have escaped detection as migrants in just about any other spot.

When eBird released its site survey in December 2009, I was pleased to be able to register Post Office Square since I already had compiled several years of consistent, repeated surveys (with complete checklists) from the location. These repeated surveys are of particular interest for certain types of analysis, and this made my efforts feel especially valuable. You can check out a Post Office Square bar chart. The contributions of other birders have added two more species to my personal total: Canada Goose and Chipping Sparrow. Any glance at this bar chart raises fascinating questions highlighted by the data. If White-throated Sparrow is so common, why is Chipping Sparrow (a common breeder and migrant in the area) so rare? Why is Ovenbird so regular in October and November, when statewide it is decidedly scarce in October and downright rare in November? Do these birds get "trapped" by the tall buildings in the area? Was the same phenomenon at play when a Wood Thrush lingered to 25 Oct 2007? Why is Blackpoll Warbler regular in fall, but the two other very common New England warblers--Yellow-rumped and Palm--are still unrecorded? While Black-capped Chickadee migration is observable in some parts of the country, I was especially excited to document it three times, including two remarkably coincident dates in April. Even more exiting, I have had Tufted Titmouse show up two times in spring and two times in fall--both the spring and fall records are within a week of each other, suggesting that this is a period of movement. Where else in New England can one discern migrating titmice? Questions like this arise with regular and thorough coverage of any site, and the ability to permanently record my findings through the eBird site survey has added a new dimension to my birding.

eBird has also been a great resource for me as kids and work responsibilities have led me to focus even my weekend birding more locally than I used to. Seeing what birds were last seen and where in Suffolk County helps me plot my plans for nearby spots, and of course the competitor in me loves to improve my placement in the eBird Top 100 or to establish a county first, last or high count. And now the 4 a.m. nighthawk heard whilst changing an infant's diaper can be memorialized forever on eBird!"

 

2010 May - Holly Merker

Name: Holly Merker

Residence: Downingtown, PA

Years eBirding: 6

eBird Chester Co., PA Life List: 233

Number of complete eBird checklists: 353

What I love about eBird is how it provides every eBirder the opportunity to make a difference in what we know about birds. Whether it be birds we see and report far from home, or birds observed  in our own backyards.

Admittedly, I’ve never been much of a list keeper. I’d find myself getting sidetracked, and forgetting to enter data into various software applications, or into my field journals.  I could tell you what I’ve seen, and what I haven’t, but never found it easy to accurately keep track of species and number, that is, until I started using eBird.

For years, my birding focus has been greatly centered on capturing data that would be useful for conservation purposes.  Projects such as CLO’s Birds of Forested Landscapes, Christmas Bird Counts, and the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas have allowed me to contribute my bird observations to projects that track and gather data that will help better understand bird distributions in my county and state.  Those projects are a wonderful reason to collect and contribute my bird observations, but aren’t always ongoing. This is where eBird has taken over, and provided me the opportunity to feel that all of my time spent in the field birding, or even from home, is a valuable contribution to avian conservation!

I have taken a particular interest in focusing my eBird contributions to my home county of Chester, Pennsylvania.  As changes of land use in this region continue to impact suitable habitat for birds, I believe that eBird checklists from various locations in the county will help give an accurate picture of the current bird life, while also giving a clearer snapshot of the changes in population trends as time goes on.

In the last few years, I have been particularly committed to gathering and entering eBird observations from areas which I feel could be compromised by future development and the impact of suburban sprawl.

One of these locations is currently under threat of development. Because of this, I have been focused on amassing avian data from all seasons, in hopes that at some point, my eBird checklists from this site may be useful to the property owners when considering the changes they will make to the land. 

The ability to be able to pull my checklist of species and dates from my eBird data for a specific location is an invaluable tool that I am glad to be able to utilize.

Because of my devotion to county eBirding, my birding style has changed in recent years. Realizing that every checklist is meaningful, and that population counts are significant, I have taken a particular interest in counting each individual bird as accurately as possible. During waterfowl migration, I take a special interest in censusing the species that visit our piedmont lakes along their journeys. It is because of my interest in counting each individual for my eBird checklists, that I located the county’s first record of a Tufted Duck.  I had been making frequent stops at a local waste water sewage lagoon through the winter, as it was one of few locations that remained unfrozen and still hosted a variety of ducks.  I had taken a particular interest in the number of Ring-necked Ducks which were congregating in growing numbers throughout February and March.  I was counting with the clicker in my hand, on March 18, 2010 when my scope landed on a hen which was quite different than the rest.  Immediately, I was able to rule out all of the expected species due to the plumage characteristics, and when the hen lifted her head, she revealed a little tuft.  Had I not been counting and carefully looking at each bird on the lagoon for my eBird checklists, I could have easily missed this rare bird. So, I credit eBird for helping to change my birding style, and giving me more incentive to look at each individual!

I feel lucky to have been able to play a small role in helping eBird manage data here in Pennsylvania. When I was asked to help volunteer with the eBird submissions for Pennsylvania, eBird was a much smaller project than it is today, with many fewer eBirders and data contributions. It has been exciting to watch eBird grow into what it has become today, and view the increasing data entered for each species in my state as more birders become eBirders.

I feel proud to be a part of the eBird community, and am grateful to eBird for providing all of us the opportunity to make a difference in the world of birds!

 

2010 April - Michael O'Brien

Name: Michael O'Brien

Residence: Cape May, NJ

Years eBirding: 4.5

eBird Life List: 786

Number of eBird Locations: 453

Number of complete eBird checklists: 1765

I’ve been birding since I was a little kid, and keeping records of some sort for most of that time. My records over the years have been kind of spotty. At first, I mainly kept track of year lists with an entry of date and location for each year bird. But I gradually lost interest in keeping year lists and my records shifted more toward highlights from different birding outings, with descriptions of interesting birds or bird sounds, and sometimes lists of birds with numbers. But these lists rarely included all birds. Just whatever I considered more noteworthy at the time. This format of recordkeeping suited me fine for a long time. I was learning a lot, and recording interesting tidbits that I could refer to later. But it wasn’t until I discovered eBird (or rather, until Chris Wood nudged me enough to finally use eBird!) that I realized just how valuable it is to take note of every bird, not just those that I find particularly interesting. And best of all, once I got into the routine of submitting records to eBird, I realized how easy it was, with only a small investment of time. I still take notes on any birds that interest me, but some of those notes are now preserved in the eBird database, for all to see and learn from.

I lead birding tours, so I do a lot of traveling, mostly around the U.S. and Central America. While on tour, I do my best to keep records in a format useful to eBird, though sometimes that’s difficult or not practical. And sometimes, finding that extra few minutes to submit a list is a challenge. But I always try, and I’m always glad when I do manage to submit lists. Not only is it useful for the eBird database, but it’s also by far the most retrievable form of storing personal bird records that I can think of. Countless times, I have tried to recall where and when I saw a particular species, so I just check eBird and there is a list of all my records of that species! When I do manage to submit records on tours, I’m always happy to share them with my tour participants. That’s one of my favorite features of eBird – sharing checklists. That way, only one member of a group needs to submit a checklist (and if you didn’t see some of the birds on someone else’s checklist, you can easily remove them from yours). On a recent tour to Colorado, I was too busy driving to keep good records, but one of my participants was an eBird fanatic and submitted 5-6 eBird checklists per day and shared them all with me (thanks Joe!). I still have a backlog of checklists to submit from past trips, but I’ll get to them sooner or later. It’s very much worth the time.

I submitted my first eBird checklist November 2005, at home in Cape May. I’m extremely fortunate to live in a place where I love to go birding. Just stepping out my door and taking a walk for an hour or two is no doubt my favorite birding that I do anywhere. By far, I have submitted more eBird checklists on this walking route from my house than from any other location. So far, I have recorded about 293 species along this route, including some exciting rarities like Barnacle Goose, Band-tailed Pigeon, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Swainson’s Warbler. But what I find really interesting is looking at the bar graphs that eBird generates from my route. Having bar graphs from such a small area reveals some interesting migration patterns in common birds that might not be obvious on a larger scale. For example, Red-eyed Vireo spring migration peaking in the last week of May and extending to the third week of June; or an obvious pattern of wintering White-breasted Nuthatches from early October to early April; or a brief summer movement of Eastern Bluebirds from mid-June to late July; or that Chipping Sparrows disappear between mid-July and mid-September.

Of course, I submit checklists from all over the Cape May area. One site that I visit regularly in fall is the Higbee Dike, where birders stand to watch warblers, and other primarily nocturnal migrant songbirds, fly by during the first couple hours of the morning – a phenomenon known as morning flight (or, more specifically, “redetermined migration”). While standing here, we frequently see much larger numbers of individuals than we would if we were just watching birds flitting through the bushes. This is a very specific behavior, seen in relatively few locations, so I feel especially compelled to document these flights and archive them in eBird. Similarly, I frequently do counts of nocturnal flight calls at various points in the Cape May area. This is still a bit of a thorny subject, because it is very difficult to know just how many individuals you are hearing. Calling rates are no doubt different under different conditions, and sometimes there are so many call notes that it’s impossible to sort out individuals. So in cases where I really can’t tell how many individuals I’m hearing, I just record an “x” for that species and indicate in the comment field roughly how many calls/minute I heard for each species. Not a perfect system, but better than not documenting the flight at all.

Although it didn’t take long for me to become addicted to eBird (in a good way!), my interest in eBirding Cape May was raised a notch when Bob Fogg decided to create a “Big Year” competition among birders on Cape Island (the area south of Cape May canal). The competition extended from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 and was based on records submitted to eBird, with the stats summarized on Bob’s website. I was initially reluctant to take part in the competition. I’ve done big years before, in different areas, and I don’t necessarily like the way they change my style of birding. But this was a little different, and I warmed up to the idea. This was different because it was based on eBird, and in order to be competitive, you had to bird more and submit more records to eBird. Bob’s whole idea with this competition was to get more people out in the field throughout the year, and to get more records submitted to eBird. And it worked! The competition really raised the level of birding and eBirding in Cape May and, as a result, refined our already-pretty-refined awareness of bird distribution here. Bob won the competition last year, with a total of 298 species recorded on Cape Island. The good news is, the fun continues! This competition is now in its second year, beginning July 1, 2009 and ending June 30, 2010. Who will be the big winner this year? Log on to www.keekeekerr.com to find out!

 

2010 March - James Brooks

Name: James Brooks

Residence: Jonesborough, TN

Years eBirding: 3

eBird Life List: 637

Number of eBird Locations: 198

Number of complete eBird checklists: 1175

 

I’ve been birding for 30 years, but even before that if I saw a bird for the first time I would write down the city and date in my Golden Guide. I began keeping daily records in 1980, and shortly thereafter my friend Ignacy Fonberg created a DOS bird record program that we called Wren. It served me well for many years until the Clipper DB program was no longer available to do taxonomic updates. At that time I transferred 16,000 entries to Avisys. I’ve also written down all these entries to add to eBird when it becomes a truly international program.

My focus has always been on listing, visiting over 40 countries in less than 30 years. A few years ago, however, my Leica binoculars were stolen and I became so depressed that I did no birding whatsoever for over a year. An income tax return allowed me to buy a new pair of Leicas, and about that time I discovered eBird. I’ve gradually undergone a metamorphosis from a lister to an amateur scientist in the past 2.5 years, largely thanks to eBird. eBird began to fill a void in my acquisitive nature that was once fueled by listing and travel. At first I was using it just like the other listing programs, but last year I began to move from entering casual observations to submitting more complete checklists based on point counts, area counts and traveling counts.

I currently write a birding column for The Johnson City Press in Tennessee, and since most of my readers are backyard bird watchers I’ve been recommending eBird to them. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual opportunity to get my readers involved, either by taunting neighboring cities for their low participation or by encouraging more local participation. I offer to submit data for readers who don’t have computers, and this year I submitted data for a half dozen readers. Most of them submitted backyard lists for all four days. Some who have participated in past years have since gotten binoculars and field guides and are improving their skills. Tennessee made the top 10 in GBBC lists submitted for the first time, and Johnson City and Jonesborough were near the top of the state. I hope my efforts to get people involved with GBBC might  help transition them over to year-round submission through eBird.

My lawn mowing business typically causes a hiatus in eBird reports once the grass comes up, but this year the county birding initiative should keep me going. My route on Unaka Mountain will have 15 stops, and I look forward to running it again the first day of spring and in each succeeding month, when I’ll have more than crows to report! We have spectacular spring and summer birding in the mountains of east Tennessee.

My first run on Unaka Mountain had a few stops with zero birds reported, and I’ve since begun submitting checklists with zero data from all my other regular stops in Washington County when I find no birds. Going from reporting only unique species to submitting checklists with zero birds brings me full circle from casual lister to scientific contributor!

The backyard site will keep me counting Northern Cardinals and my other ‘regulars’ throughout the year, but I look forward to some surprises. They always happen when you get out into the field. My five acres of woods and meadows have yielded over 120 species since I moved here in 1991, including a Black Rail! A migrating Kirtland’s Warbler at my previous residence has to count as my best backyard bird ever. Great bird sightings can be found anywhere one is willing to put forth consistent effort. I’m planning on 3-4 reports a week from Bear Run, my backyard site. This February I submitted 57 checklists, better than two a day, from 43 locations, and reported 53 species. Normally this is my lowest reporting month of the year!

2010 Feb - Michael Hobbs

Name: Michael Hobbs

Residence: King County, WA

Years eBirding: 2

eBird Life List: 210

Number of eBird Locations: 2

Number of complete eBird checklists: 708

Almost seventeen years ago, I decided to visit Marymoor Park, a local spot that was convenient, each and every week.  I had no ideas about doing any kind of grand scientific survey of the birds or anything like that.  I simply needed to get out birding more.  Scheduling a trip for every Thursday morning before work seemed like the best approach.

Being an obsessive-compulsive computer programmer type, I kept lists, of course.  And I'd written my own database program to track my sightings; this was before AviSys was even available, and long before eBird.  So each week, after my walk, I'd enter the species seen and a guess at the numbers.  Slowly, other people began to join me on my walks (most notably, Brian Bell, who has been along on almost all of them).

After a few years, I began to realize that the park bird list was getting pretty impressive, and the patterns of bird occurrence were pretty obvious in my data.  This was cool.  I could pretty much predict what common birds we'd see each week, and I could track things like a slow drop in the numbers of certain ducks, or in California Quail.

I began to take my surveys more seriously.  I made sure that Brian, or someone else, would cover for me if I was out of town.  I modified my database to be able to track more and more kinds of data.  The group of birders grew.  Parks management began to recognize birding as an important activity for park visitors.  Non-birders would ask questions, or share with me their sightings of birds.

But there was one big problem.  The number of surveys was getting up into the high hundreds.  I had tens of thousands of bird records that, taken together, painted a pretty compelling picture of the bird populations of the park.  But all of that data existed only in my own, custom database, on my computer at home.  I put some summary charts on my website, and I contributed some of my data to the University of Washington. But most of the information remained private, closed off, inaccessible.

When I heard about eBird, and saw how it was reaching a critical mass, and how many birders were using it, I decided to get my data onto eBird.   It was a touch tricky to enter the historical data, only because I hadn't anticipated some of the data requirements.  I decided that, as much as possible, I'd report each of my weekly visits as Area Counts.  I had to reconstruct some of the information that the Area Count protocol asks for, such as start time, duration, and number of observers.  I had most of that data, but I had to, for instance, manually count up the observer names I'd listed for each of hundreds of visits.

The result?  Using eBird's import wizard, I've now uploaded over 40,000 sightings, and everyone can now view the resulting bar charts, etc.  I'll soon be able upload each week's sightings automatically to eBird.  My data is no longer stuck in the black hole of my home computer.  And maybe other people will be encouraged to do their own long-term survey of a favorite location.

When I started birding at Marymoor Park, many local birders were skeptical that it was even a worthwhile place to bird.  Some of them had written it off as literally "gone to the dogs", because it hosts one of the largest suburban off-leash dog areas in the country.  But I liked birding there, and the birds seemed to like being there too.

My first rare bird, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in 1999, was only the 5th sighting of the species in Washington State.  Birders began to take notice.  They really perked up when a Buff-breasted Sandpiper spent several days on a grass soccer field in 2005 (while I was out of town).  A Baltimore Oriole (4th state record) was found in 2006, followed a couple of months later by Washington State's only record of Smith's Longspur.  We've had many birds rarely found in western Washington, species usually being restricted to the dry side of the state, such as Sage Thrasher, Sage Sparrow, and even Burrowing Owl.  Twenty species of sparrow, eleven species of flycatcher, and eight species of owl have kept things interesting.  The park list is now at 215, not bad for a single square mile of heavily used park, surrounded by suburbia.

Birding in one place has been a fantastic thing to do.  The park feels like home.  I know the birds and the trees and the bushes. Birding one location seems to be the best way to learn birding by ear.  I've learned things like the relationship between the lake water level and the spots that Virginia Rails hang out, and the weather patterns favored by Black Swifts.  I know which twigs are favorite perches for Anna's Hummingbirds and Northern Shrike.  

The charts of the combined data from all of the visits make the seasonal occurrence of the birds in the area easy to see.  Who knew that the best time to see Say's Phoebe around here was the 4th week in March, or that our Mourning Doves show clear spring and fall pulses, as if they migrate?

My focus on the park was a triggering factor in the decision by Eastside Audubon to adopt the nature trail at the park.  The city of Redmond, which surrounds the park, includes a yearly report I prepare on the birds of Marymoor Park in their annual assessment of the city.  Park management now regularly considers possible impacts on birds when development is considered.  And I've gotten to meet and bird with a lot of really great people at "my park".

More information about my Marymoor Park surveys can be found at www.marymoor.org/birding.htm

2010 Jan - David Suddjian

David is relatively new to eBird, but has had a tremendous impact on the project in Santa Cruz County, California. Since April of 2009, David has submitted over 5,000 complete checklists from nearly 2,000 locations (he loves point counts!). David's dedication and drive, along with the huge impact he's had on our ability to understand the birds of Santa Cruz has earned our respect and admiration.

Name: David Suddjian

Residence: Santa Cruz County, California

Years eBirding: 1

eBird Life List: 360

Number of eBird locations: 1970

Number of complete eBird checklists: 5494

From David:

I became an active eBird contributor on April 16, 2009. I had watched eBird grow over the years and had especially taken notice of its value as a large scale database which accepted observations of all species from anyone. But I had wondered, would submitting my own observations be just another layer of work on top of the record keeping I was already doing for my field research and active birding? And would the effort really be useful for me?
 
Then in April 2009 eBird project leader Brian Sullivan sent me an email asking if I'd give eBird a try. That was the nudge I needed, and it has been a great ride ever since! My first checklist was just from a walk in my neighborhood in Capitola, California. From that beginning I've submitted checklists for current sightings almost every day. And once I began to look at eBird's species maps, I also wanted to start to enter checklists with observations from prior months and years. And so I've been looking forward and backward, and I guess I have become a bit obsessed with eBird. On January 2, 2010 I submitted my 5,000th complete checklist. Almost 4,000 of those checklists have been from my home county of Santa Cruz, California. To handle some of that volume I have prepared my own forms for use in the field, tailored to my area and the season, and I've extensively used the import option for submitting checklists, allowing me to save a good deal of time.
 
Although I had wondered if the effort would be worthwhile, I quickly realized how helpful eBird could be in helping me to organize and keep track of my observations. And it is now so easy to record information about common birds, not just rarities or species that might be a focus of particular research efforts. I am thrilled to have my observations be part of a larger data set that is available to anyone who is interested. That is far more satisfying than having my notes just accumulate in my computer files or in old notebooks on my shelves.
 
eBird has provided me with an easy way to record results from several large field efforts I've organized and undertaken. These include a number of different bird monitoring programs in the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, such as the Santa Cruz County Forest Bird Monitoring Program which conducted point counts at over 1,200 locations annually for six years. This past spring I began a study of forest owls, and have entered all the results on eBird, generating over 800 checklists so far. Some of the results of that effort can be found by checking out maps for Western Screech-Owl and Northern Saw-whet Owl in California's Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties.
 
eBird has shaped my birding in two ways. First, eBird has made me much more aware of bird numbers at particular locations. I have become a great fan of specific locations, and have submitted checklists for over 1,900 locations. I often tailor my birding to visit many different locations, separating observations from large sites into smaller parts, and seeking out new locations. When I vacationed to Yosemite National Park and Mono Lake last August I recreated by doing a series of 5-minute point counts each morning!
 
Second, eBird has given me incentive to focus on repeated visits to certain locations. I've always been a fan of "patch birding," and eBird's data output tools give me easy ways to view and learn from the results of my efforts. I have registered five locations in eBird's new "Site Survey." These are supposed to be locations that are visited daily or weekly, so I decided I better choose places near my home. I picked my backyard, my neighborhood street, Capitola Beach and Seacliff State Beach (both within a couple miles of my home), and the wooded campground of New Brighton State Beach, also nearby. Now I make a point of taking a look at these places more often than I might otherwise, and I have already learned a great deal about changing numbers and species over the weeks and months. I have even learned to pay much more careful attention to the birds around my home.

Capitola Beach, Santa Cruz, CA. Photo David Suddjian.

 

I have enjoyed many rare birds since I began using eBird. There have been Eastern vagrants such as Ovenbird and Orchard Oriole last spring, lifers like a Hudsonian Godwit last summer, and unexpected visitors such as a flock of Mountain Bluebirds near my home last October. In early January, while doing point counts in suburban areas specifically for eBird I found a locally rare Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Costa's Hummingbird. But my favorite so far was a migrant Flammulated Owl that I came upon before sunrise last September in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. My passion for adding information to eBird was part of what had gotten me out in the woods that morning. So thanks eBird!

2009 Dec - Jane Stulp

Jane is a model eBirder who participates in our site survey from her yard in southeastern Colorado. She has submitted over 87% of all complete checklists from Prowers county! She exemplifies the notion that a single person can make a significant contribution to ornithology by simply keeping track of birds in their yard.

Please see the attachment at the end of this page to see the bar charts for Stulp Farms--they are very impressive. Since it takes several checklist to make complete bar charts like this, you can see that Jane has put in a great effort to enter complete checklists--even during the quiet times of the year. We hope others will follow Jane's model and try to submit a checklist or two a day from their yard or other favorite birding location.

Perhaps most impressive, Jane admits below to being a member of the "Zero club". How many eBirders are committed enough to enter complete checklists with effort even when that effort results in ZERO species being observed!? That is a totally appropriate use of eBird, even though many birders might not go to the effort to enter checklists if they don't get to check off at least one bird. Way to go Jane!

Name: Jane Stulp

Residence: Prowers County, Colorado

Years birding: 7

Years eBirding: 3

eBird Life List: 238

Number of eBird locations: 37

Number of complete eBird checklists: 1247

Location with most checklists: Stulp Farms (952)

From Jane:

When asked to submit a few words about both eBird and my yard, I felt hesitant, ill-equipped, somewhat amateurish, but yet honored that eBird thought my experiences might be an encouragement to some. For most of my birding experience I cannot relate any exhilarating stories of trekking through unfamiliar landscapes, hiking up a breathtaking mountainside, or driving miles in the predawn hours in pursuit of an elusive rarity – I’m simply a backyard birder.  My binoculars sit in readiness by a window or accompany me from the farm office to the kitchen and vice versa. My windows serve as a barrier for any extreme weather while I enjoy the comforts of being inside, and the relished mornings that I am home let me take a quick preview of what visitors might be in the back yard. I constructed my water feature in clear view of the dining room window, and I’ve been known to rearrange some of the rocks to improve line of view for the window observation. Every trip by the window I can easily glance out for any movement around the water and it’s almost guaranteed that any yard visitor will sooner or later quench its thirst or ruffle its feathers in the water refreshing itself for the next leg of its journey. The windows serve as a blind; many of my photographs are taken through the glass without the bird ever aware of my presence. I can easily watch a good part of the day without greatly interrupting my work. Of course when I’m outside on “yard work” days, it’s easy to tote the binoculars and get side-tracked when something unusual drops in. However, since birding is addictive, I reserve the right to trek and hike and drive in pursuit.

Our farm headquarters sits atop a hill in the middle of a semi-arid area in southeast Colorado. Summer fallow crop rotation provides some variation in the surrounding landscape except during the more-often-than-not drought conditions. Dryland winter wheat, fallowed ground, and native Buffalo Grass encircle the broader headquarters; corrals are just to the north of the house, an ensilage pit borders the south, and grain storage is a stone’s throw west.  A quick scan across the terrain reveals that trees don’t survive here without extra help. Dry creeks are named in the case of a runoff, and a few scattered pasture ponds often sit empty or serve as a haven for wandering tumbleweeds.  So amidst what might be “windswept-brown” for mile upon mile, my Bluegrass-Perennial Rye lawn in the immediate perimeter of our farm house, with what only seems like a handful of yard trees in the vast expanse, and a few flowers and shrubs along with a watering hole, together create a small oasis that beckons some migrating birds for a brief visit. Whether the wind just blows them in or whether they share the news of a “bed and breakfast” with their buddies, I’m blessed with these bird drop-ins during migration through southeast Colorado.

In 2002, I jotted down a list of a few birds that came, took some more photos in 2003, and then progressed into a more serious mode about the yard documentation in 2004. My photo taking is an identification tool. I found that I wasn’t quick enough to notice all the right details but I could snap a photo, digitally enlarge it on the computer, compare it to the field guide, and if needed could seek confirmation by emailing the photo to a birding friend.  After a software crash deleted my electronic bird data, I was seeking another means to again transfer my hand written journals to an electronic version. I found eBird to be very user friendly. Once I entered my locations, submitting a list was quicker and easier than my old way, and my data can be recalled in a variety of meaningful ways. I can find when and how many Golden-crowned Kinglets I’ve had with just a couple of clicks, or I can pull up a total personal list for any of my personal locations for any given time period.  I depend on eBird’s backup system being more reliable than mine but I can download my data anytime. eBird has been a valuable tool and resource for me, and at the same time I feel I can contribute some small part to be included in the broader scientific analysis of bird numbers, behavior, and movement. Thanks, eBird!

I pulled up a few stats from my eBird yard list that might be of interest...

• 150 Blue Jays swarmed in and devoured every bird seed in the yard in October 2004 and then were off again – even one Blue Jay is not a common visitor in the yard
• Pine Siskins were irruptive in this area in winter and spring of 2008 and from the back window my highest count perched in the trees or on feeders was 148 on March 16^th
• Seven species of Hummingbirds have traveled through including a couple with fewer than 5 records for the state: Broad-billed and Costa’s.
• Twenty-four species of warblers have dropped in with the most recent being a Pine Warbler on October 19^th this fall
• Six different species of vireos have peered out from amongst the sparse branches of my trees
• A lone Black-chinned Sparrow in a fence row a couple miles south of the house September 16, 2006 (not a yard bird) was identified by the experts (using a very poor photo I submitted) as the first accepted record for Colorado . . . sixteen other species with the last name of Sparrow have made an appearance within the yard
• The highest species count in a single day for the yard was 48 on May 13, 2006 tempered by the lowest of 0 on several occasions. Even the zeros are entered into eBird!
• The total yard count currently tallies at 189 species – all, except a handful, confirmed with photos
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our farm website is: www.stulpfarms.com

Some of my bird photos are posted at: www.stulpfarms.com/birdquestions.html

All photos copyright Jane Stulp.