Birding News and Features
Wisconsin Society for Ornithology's 2012 Convention in Madison
The winter of the Snowy Owl
Back in late November, eBird reviewer Sam Galick got us ready for the Snowy Owl invasion of 2011-2012. For three months now eBirders across the US and Canada have been reveling in these striking tundra emissaries, which have appeared from coast to coast, many well south of their normal range. eBirders Jesse Ellis and Skye Haas have mined the email reports and listservs to ensure that no Snowy Owl report has escaped eBird's net. Thanks to their efforts, and submissions from thousands of eBirders worldwide, this surely has been the best documented Snowy Owl invasion in the history of ornithology. With three months of data under our belts, and 2-3 months left to enjoy these majestic raptors before they head north, this is a great time to compare this winter's irruption to years past. By any metric, this is one of the larger invasions, but how big is it? What do the geographical patterns tell us? Below we explore this winter's Snowy Owl invasion within a historical context. But first, here's a quick quiz: how many US states have never recorded a Snowy Owl? Which ones?
Visit an underbirded county!
While it's fun for Dane County birders to compete with Milwaukee County birders for number of checklists and number of species in eBird, a look across the state shows significant gaps in eBird coverage.
Hotspot of the Month--Poygan SWA
Another month — another county! This month Andy Paulios and Paul Samerdyke (WI DNR Biologist) profile the Poygan State Wildlife Area located on the southwest shores of Lake Poygan in eastern Waushara County. Much like December’s article, this hotspot lies in an under-eBirded county.
Waushara County contains diverse grasslands, wetlands, forests, savannas and large bodies of open water however; the latest eBird species bar chart shows only 222 species reported for the county and a few weeks of the year completely lacking checklists! With that in mind we hope to turn you on to a great wildlife area for birds and birders and encourage you to enter checklists in 2012!
Make it your New Year’s eBird resolution to enter details for flagged records!
Wisconsin eBird has among the best eBird participation rates of any state — that’s great news, but results in a lot of flagged records heading into review. In fact, even though eBird reviewers work most days to clear records, we still currently have a backlog of nearly 600 records in review, many without comments, which take much longer to process.
Read on to discover the importance of including comments for flagged species to make sure your observations are getting quickly processed and added to the eBird database.
eBird Rare Bird Alerts are here!
After releasing Year Alerts last week, we are happy to announce another exciting Alert option -- the eBird Rare Bird Alert. This alert basically takes the eBird Notable Birds Google Gadget and moves it into an eBird Alert environment, meaning that you can now receive hourly or daily email summaries, or just go view rare birds on the web at our eBird alerts page. One key update is the addition of counties to the available alert regions, meaning you can customize your rare bird alert experience more than ever. The new Rare Bird Alert notifies you about any unusual bird that has been reported in your region of interest, and provides a link to the location and to the checklist so you can get more information about the sighting, and make the critical call as to whether it's worth calling in sick to work!
