eBirder of the Month: Zachary DeBruine
Zachary is a passionate eBirder who has submitted over a thousand checklists in only two years of eBirding. He is a model eBirder in so many ways, but what we would particularly like to highlight his eBird Recent Sightings Gadget.
Perhaps you work at a state park and would like your website to automatically give you and your visitors a list of recent sightings in the area -- Zachary's gadget does it! Or maybe you simply want a way to keep track of birds near where you live -- with Zachary's gadget you can customize it for your iGoogle page and see all birds that have been seen within 25 miles in the last month and where.
Please visit Zachary's Birdventure Blog, that contains all the details on what his eBird Recent Sightings Gadget does and information on how you can embed it on your own web site. Here are quick links to customize and embed on your iGoogle Page or website.
Residence: Grand Rapids, MI
Years eBirding: 2
eBird Life List: 324
Number of eBird Locations: 417
Number of eBird Checklists: 1,425
From Zachary:
Today marks almost exactly 2 years since my first encounter with the eBird program. At that time, I was a novice birdwatcher. I remember doing a random Google search on some bird-related topic and opening up the eBird website with curiosity. I registered and submitted my first checklist. The idea appealed to me, but it wasn't until half a year later when I heard Caleb Putnam speaking at the Grand Rapids chapter of the National Audubon Society that I really became intrigued. Caleb is one of Michigan's most outstanding eBirders, and so he understandably shared his enthusiasm for this program with us all. It was contagious--I was enthralled, and submitted a few more checklists to the program. Now that I realized the full potential of eBird, I absolutely loved it! I was astounded by the immense database created by birders all over the world, and thrilled by the challenge of listing competitively through eBird. Within a week I had imported all my historical records (6 months of them), and began eBirding at full-throttle. I shared my new-found hobby with my younger brother Nathan, who is now just as much an eBirder as myself.
eBird has tremendous potential, and I felt that there were still many birders unreached by this program. I wanted to get involved in promoting this excellent research tool. I had some experience in web-based programming, though my primary pursuit is a degree in biochemistry/genetics research. From the time that I discovered eBird’s Rarities Gadget, I was determined to make more gadgets similar to this. Soon after that I had created several single-use gadgets. I enjoyed them so much for personal use that I decided to publish them so other people could use them as well. They were an immediate hit, which inspired me to continue the project. After several hundred hours of work, I created a gadget which combined all the functionalities of my previous gadgets. It also introduced a few novel capabilities. Thanks to the enthusiastic response of fellow eBirders along with some helpful suggestions, this gadget has become a handy tool for every birder. I hope it will provide you with ease of access to recent eBird data in your area as well as the opportunity to share this convenience with your birding community through your website. I have a long list of ideas for future development, and as time allows, I hope to continue elaborating on this code. Please feel free to provide me with your suggestions and feedback as well!
Like all eBirders, I'm eagerly waiting for the day when tools such as hotspot wikis, a complete set of animated occurrence maps, and enhanced user-accessible observation databases (APIs) will become available. eBird is heralding the 21st century of birding and will continue to grow rapidly. Our understanding and mastery of ornithology and conservation is being revolutionized. Cornell is engaging the public, inviting every birdwatcher to contribute to science, and calling them to be responsible stewards of their own environment by contributing to local, nationwide, and global conservation efforts. This Google Gadget is one of many ways you can share the eBird benefit you are enjoying with every other birder you know.
I still am surprised by this honor, but I hope that my small contributions via this gadget as well as my story may spur on other eBirders (and also those people who develop eBird!) to continue their contributions and efforts in order to support birds and increase our growing understanding of ornithology. I want eBird to become a much more easily accessible tool to even the most withdrawn non-listing birdwatchers--the millions of Americans who want to know when Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Baltimore Orioles begin heading north, or when Eastern Bluebirds begin to stake out territory. These birdwatchers would contribute their data, but they need a popular and extremely accessible medium to connect them with the real science that's going on right here!"
