Upcoming changes to eBird Hotspots in Virginia

As of November 20, 2008 Virginia has 452 hotspots (Figure 1). Many of these locations are inconsistently named and some are duplicates. In the upcoming weeks eBird hotspots in Virginia will be changed. The purpose of the article is to inform the VA eBird community about these upcoming changes.

Figure 1. Hotspots in the State of Virginia

Name changes will be the most visible updates to all eBird users and they will affect popular areas such as Mason Neck SP, Back Bay, Shenandoah NP, and many other parks. The biggest change involves standardization of the hotspot names and sub-location names. An example is given below for Mason Neck State Park.

Hotspot:
  Current name: Mason Neck State Park
  New name: Mason Neck SP

Sub-location
  Current Name: Mason Neck State Park Kanes Creek Trail
  New name: Mason Neck SP—Kanes Creek Trail

Sub-location
  Current Name: Mason Neck State Park Wilson Spring Trail
  New name: Mason Neck SP—Wilson Spring Trail

Based on the example above you can deduce that eBird uses specific abbreviations to indicate state parks, wildlife preserves and other parks, and that sub-locations are identified by the double dash between the name of the hotspot and a location within the park. For more information on eBird’s naming conventions, please visit http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/hotspots

The drawback of changing the hotspot names is that users of commercial software packages such as Avisys, BirdBase, Birder’s Diary, etc. will need to update the location names accordingly. Like many of you, my observations database will be impacted as well.

In addition to the name changes, the actual location of hotspots may change. Some hotspots were incorrectly mapped. For example Rust Sanctuary in Loudoun County was located about 0.5 miles east of the actual location and inside in a neighborhood. Using available tools in eBird, I have relocated the hotspot “Rust Sanctuary” to the correct side of the road.

In some cases duplicate entries exist for a hotspot. These locations will either be merged or one hotspot will get a sub-location assigned if information can be found to refine the duplicate hotspot.

The table at the end of this article lists all potential changes, including name changes, duplicates, and location updates. By the end of the year all name changes will be made and duplicates removed. The location updates will take more time.

If you have any questions regarding these updates, or you know about other issues with hotspots, please email me at drgerco@hotmail.com. On behalf of eBird and VA eBird I would like to thank everyone for your continued use of eBird.

   Gerco Hoogeweg, Ph.D.
   Volunteer eBird hot spot manager for VA