Semipalmated Plover
The International Shorebird Surveys (ISS) and the Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (PRISM) are now being run through the eBird website. If you are unfamiliar with these shorebird surveys, which depend on the efforts of volunteers, you can read more about them here. For those of you that already participate, it is very very important that you enter your ISS surveys only through the ISS eBird site. Please use this site only for your ISS surveys, and please use core eBird or your local eBird portal for your other bird observations. This allows us to identify which surveys were ISS surveys and which ones were not. But don’t worry, every sighting you submit to eBird, whether to core eBird, to ISS eBird, or to a regional portal such as California eBird or aVerAves (Mexico), will be completely integrated with your personal eBird account.
The ISS and eBird
We are excited to say that International Shorebird Survey cooperators can now report counts to the ISS through eBird via the internet. Traditional reports on paper or on electronic spreadsheets will continue to be welcomed from persons choosing that option.
eBird’s goal is to maximize the utility and accessibility of the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. There are a number of advantages to reporting ISS counts through eBird. Key among these is saving a large amount of work at Manomet, still largely done by volunteers. So please do consider using eBird to report your ISS survey this year.
Our recent practice has been to key all data received on paper into an electronic database. This database then is checked for possible errors made during the data-entry, and finally is placed for inclusion in the main ISS database. All this requires weeks of work each year. This work can be reduced by cooperators who report their shorebird counts directly via eBird in the future. Once submitted and approved, ISS/eBird counts will be added directly to the 30 years of existing ISS data, and will be available through eBird (and the Avian Knowledge Network) to anyone desiring use of ISS data in the future.
1a. To report your counts through eBird point your web browser to https://ebird.org/iss/. Please note that data entered through this site will be fully integrated with your personal eBird account. If you use eBird to track your personal life list and your daily birding outings, then fear not, your ISS surveys will appear in your personal account as well. One very important note: 1a. If this is your first ever visit to eBird you will need to log in and obtain a user identification. This is easy to do–start by clicking “Register as a new user” and follow the succeeding instructions. Please be sure to include your name as well as email address, in case we need to contact you. Then continue with step 2 below.
1b. If you are a prior user of eBird you can use your existing username and password to login on the ISS/eBird page. Contact Marshall Iliff at mji26@cornell.edu if you need help locating your eBird username and password. Please use the ISS/eBird entry point for all ISS reports instead of the traditional eBird entry points for reports other than ISS. See the sidebar for reasons. On the other hand, please do not use the ISS entry point for your observations that were not made at your ISS location. Instead, use the traditional eBird entry point for non-ISS observations. If you have questions about this please contact Marshall Iliff or Brian Harrington (Email addresses below).
2. Once you are logged in to eBird/ISS you will need to identify the location you are reporting. IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST ISS REPORT via eBird, please select “find it on a map” as your starting point for finding the location. You will be presented with a Google Map showing red stickpins for eBird hotspots, which will include ISS survey locations as well as all other eBird hotspots. Zoom in to the area of your survey and click on the red stickpin to see the name of the hotspot. In some cases the location may be up to a mile away; please check surrounding stickpins to find your location (and let us know if it needs to be relocated). Click on the stickpin to select the location and press continue when found. (In later visits you can use the drop-down window under “My Locations” to identify your location.)
2a. IF YOUR LOCATION DOES NOT APPEAR ON THE MAP (or the red stickpin needs to be moved) please contact Marshall Iliff of eBird at mji26@cornell.edu. Marshall will work with you to add a “hotspot” for the new ISS location. Once the location has been assigned, you can enter your counts, including ones you have made months or years earlier (but not ones you have previously reported to ISS–they will already be there, or are in the process of being added). As this is the first year, we expect some glitches with finding the ISS survey locations, so please do not hesitate to contact Marshall with any questions.
3. Once your reporting location is identified you will be asked whether all species of birds are being reported, or whether just select species (e.g., shorebirds) are reported. We encourage reporting of all birds. But if you are reporting just the shorebird species, please answer “No” to this question.
4. After entering your counts press “continue” and follow the continuing directions and guidelines.
5. When done, sign out.
As a participant in ISS/eBird you have opportunities to see various kinds of summaries of data that have been reported by you and others. To have a look at possibilities, click on the eBird tabs for “View and explore data”, or on the tab for “My eBird”. Try it–you’ll like it. And consider using eBird for all your bird record keeping, since the results are pooled with those of thousands of other birders to inform scientists and conservation planners.
IF YOU STILL HAVE QUESTIONS, please feel free to contact Stephanie Schmidt sschmidt@manomet.org or Brad Winn bwinn@manomet.org
