http://ebird.org/content/va daily 1 2008-03-14T17:41:23Z http://ebird.org/content/va/news/subscribe-to-ebird-alerts We are very excited to introduce a new feature: eBird Alerts! By going to the eBird Alerts page from "View and Explore Data" you can view a list of all the national-level rarities recently reported in North America and Canada. These are defined by the ABA Codes, which we explain below. You have the option to subscribe hourly (!), daily, or just to visit this page and click to see the results from the past seven days. In the near future, we hope to add similar alerts for birds you "need" (i.e., birds not already on your eBird list) for a given state or province. So please, sign up for our ABA Alerts to keep up on what rarities--like Ivory Gulls--are being reported around the country! No publisher Arun_Bose 2010-03-13T13:39:11Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/adopt-an-important-bird-area The Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is an international bird conservation program being implemented on every continent, with 48 states participating in the United States. The aim of the program is to identify a network of sites that are essential for sustaining naturally occurring populations of bird species, and to protect or manage these sites for the long-term conservation of birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. For a site to be recognized as an IBA it must meet criteria based on bird concentrations, threatened species, or species assemblages representative of priority habitats. No publisher Arun_Bose 2010-01-26T01:42:35Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/the-virginia-important-bird-areas-are-on-ebird The staff of the Virginia Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is pleased to announce that Virginia’s IBAs are now on Virginia eBird! In a very important step for Virginia’s Program, 19 of Virginia’s 20 IBAs have been integrated into Virginia eBird, with the newly-delineated Central Piedmont IBA to be incorporated soon. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-12-21T15:39:43Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/vso-2009-foray-highlights-in-search-of-bachman2019s-sparrow The 2009 VSO Foray was conducted June 12-17, 2009 in Greensville, Sussex and portions of Southampton Counties. The target species, Bachman’s Sparrow, was not found but, there were several other interesting findings. The full report is available at the VSO website. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-11-11T02:48:16Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/why-arent-some-ebird-reports-updating-1 We are in the process of updating a table that is used to generate some reports in eBird (including life lists, state lists, and county lists). For the next week or so, these reports will not include any new records. All records are still added to the eBird database, and all of the lists and maps in eBird will be updated when this work is complete. You can continue to submit and report observations as usual. All of the records you enter are safe. This effort is taking a bit longer than anticipated but we hope to finish it as soon as possible. We will post updates here. Expect to see your lists display faster after this work is completed. Thanks for your patience as we continue to improve eBird. Team eBird. UPDATED: 25 September 2009. 8:49AM Eastern. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-09-27T22:45:13Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/coastal-virginia-wildlife-observatory-fall-staff-2009 For the first time in 8 years, Jethro Runco will not be the Songbird Bander at Kiptopeke. His amazing skills, dedication, teaching style and personality will be sorely missed. He also pioneered, for 2 seasons, at our spring songbird program at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. We wish him the best! For 2009 the Observatory has its largest-ever fall staff at 7. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-09-24T23:35:20Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/prothonotary-warbler-in-the-news A recent article by Scott Harper in The Virginian-Pilot highlights the success of the nest box program established by conservationists and Virginia Commonwealth University. The program is and supported by the CVWO in the Tidewater region, and Richmond Audubon Society in the Richmond area. The article also discusses the perspective of landowners who fear this success. The article can be found here – Pilot Online.com. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-08-10T03:17:45Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/vdgif-and-ebird-announce-partnership-between-ebird-and-the-virginia-birding-wildlife-trail The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) and eBird are proud to announce a partnership between eBird and the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail (VBWT). The VBWT is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year and staff with the VDGIF Watchable Wildlife program is working to enhance the VBWT’s website for users and increase its value as a conservation tool. Working with eBird, helps fulfill both goals. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-07-03T23:51:18Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/the-trouble-with-x-why-you-should-always-estimate-numbers Over the years at eBird we have always been flexible about allowing users to report either numbers for each species, or to provide an 'X' to indicate presence. In our latest round of analysis, however, we found that checklists where users estimated numbers for ALL species encountered were of significantly higher conservation value when compared with those that contain 'Xs', or even a single 'X' mixed in with numbers. In this piece we'll talk about why recording numbers is important, as well as provide some guidance as to how to estimate numbers in difficult situations. Read more about why making your best estimate of numbers always trumps the dreaded 'X'! No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-04-20T02:05:49Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/explore-ebird-data-on-maps-new-feature eBird is excited to announce a new mapping tool that gives specific information about each record straight from the eBird database. Suppose you are interested in learning where to find a White-winged Crossbill on an upcoming trip to Wisconsin. Now you can just pull up the eBird map for White-winged Crossbill in Wisconsin and explore it via a Google Maps interface. Refine the date and location to display exactly what interests you most (e.g., February or Milwaukee County only) and look for most recent reports which are indicated by yellow markers. Read on for more on how to use this new mapping interface and for a review on how to get the most of eBird's grid maps and its new point maps. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-02-18T14:33:54Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/upcoming-changes-to-ebird-hotspots-in-virginia eBird hotspots - many of us use them to submit observations. However, the name hotspot is somewhat misleading. Hotspots are shared locations that every eBirder can use to submit observations or create sighting reports. Any birding location can be a potential “hotspot”, and anybody using eBird can recommend a hotspot. This recommendation will be reviewed by the volunteer hotspot manager for Virginia before it is accepted as a hotspot. I have recently taken on the role of hotspot manager. No publisher Arun_Bose 2009-12-31T01:45:52Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/cvwo-joins-the-virginia-saw-whet-owl-consortium IN 2007 CVWO joined a consortium of Northern Saw-whet Owl banding stations in Virginia under the permit of master bander and CVWO Vice-President, Dr. Bob Reilly. CVWO provided equipment support to stations at First Landing State Park, at Shenandoah River State Park, and at the McCown site in Cumberland County. The consortium also includes the Powhatan Wildlife Management Area and Timber Creek stations in Powhatan County, a site in Goochland County, the station at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Center in Charles City County (run in partnership with the VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and VCU) and a new station at the Dutch Gap Conservation Area in Chesterfield County. The Shenandoah River SP and Dutch Gap Conservation Area stations did not operate in 2007. No publisher Arun_Bose 2008-11-24T15:00:52Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/vso2019s-principles-of-birding-ethics In the Fall 2008 issue of the Virginia Society of Ornithology newsletter, VSO President David Spears said, “In the Federalist Papers, Hamilton and Madison wrote, ‘If men were angels, no government would be necessary.’ But men aren’t angels, they went on to argue, and therefore we need rules to govern our behavior. What about birders? Are we all angels? Do we need rules?” No publisher Arun_Bose 2008-11-21T20:56:26Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/virginia-ebird-data-quality Did you know that every record submitted to eBird goes through the eBird data verification process? Using a combination of automated data filters and a network of local experts, eBird tackles the issue of data quality in Citizen-Science. In order for us to maintain the integrity of the database, and for it to be used fully by the science and conservation community, we as observers must fully understand and strive to reach the highest level of data quality. Therefore, we've developed procedures to facilitate communication between eBird observers and scientists, including some new and improved review tools for our editors. Through our combined effort to maintain high data quality, eBird will take its place among the most valuable large-scale data sets on bird distribution and abundance in the world. Read more about our data verification process.... No publisher Arun_Bose 2008-07-17T19:46:39Z Feature http://ebird.org/content/va/news/make-your-checklists-more-meaningful As the eBird database grows by leaps and bounds, it is becoming ever more valuable. Your observations are making a huge difference in our understanding of birds at many levels. Our scientists are now analyzing your data to find new patterns in bird distribution, abundance and population trends. Although every record submitted to eBird is valuable, only observations with effort can be used in these more rigorous analyses, so we would like to promote several bird survey techniques that we consider most valuable in this regard. Make the most of your birding by conducting traveling counts, stationary counts and area counts in a more meaningful way. In this feature we'll give examples of how to make your observations count for bird conservation! No publisher bls42 2008-07-03T22:31:07Z Feature