Hi Everyone,
Apologies about the broken link at the bottom of this message, and many
thanks to those who let me know about the problem. I'd left out the last 2
letters of photostream in the link.
This link should work (I hope):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allseasonshooter/8199982107/in/photostream
I think that you will find Chuck Fullmer's photos to be well worth the wait
(and ample incentive to go find some crossbills!)
Have fun,
Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD
<rlgutberlet...>
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 3:14 AM, Ron Gutberlet <rlgutberlet...>wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> With this season shaping up as one for the ornithological record books,
> those of us on the MD and DC eBird teams thought it would be helpful to
> provide some suggestions about reporting Red Crossbills to eBird (
> www.ebird.org). The more carefully we can document crossbills in MD and
> DC this season, the more valuable all of our contributions will be.
>
> Let's cut to the chase with a few specific recommendations. As always,
> please let us know if you have questions or if we can help with anything.
>
> 1. If you are fortunate enough to encounter one or more Red Crossbills but
> are unable to get voice recordings, please report the birds to eBird as Red
> Crossbills only. In other words, please do not report the birds as Red
> Crossbill Type 3 or any other Type.
>
> 2. If you have an excellent ear and have been studying hard and think that
> you were able to assign a fleeting sound overhead to a specific Type, then
> please enter this information in the comments section.
>
> 3. Any Red Crossbill encounter in MD or DC is noteworthy. If you enjoy
> bird study, you can put that interest to great use by capturing information
> about the encounter. How did you identify the bird(s) and rule out similar
> species? Did you see the bird(s) or only hear them? How many birds were
> there? If you are lucky and actually get to see the birds in a tree
> (instead of flying by), what kind of tree is it?
>
> 4. By far the biggest contribution you can make to documenting the avian
> events of this season is to collect actual evidence in the field. If you
> have a smart phone, you can make voice recordings (see suggestions in Matt
> Young's article linked below). Photos are always important evidence and
> will always be appreciated. Even photos of the trees used by the birds
> would be nice--not all of us are experts on conifer id, but a simple photo
> of a tree takes care of that.
>
> 5. "To be able to identify all individuals of each call type with 100%
> certainty, audiospectrographic analysis is needed," says Matt Young in his
> article linked below. More from this article: "We encourage anyone
> encountering crossbills to attempt audio recordings. While we welcome
> recordings from those with professional grade recording equipment, even
> smartphones can adequately document the call types using their 'voice memo'
> features. For example, on an iPhone just hit voice memo (included on any
> iPhone), hold your phone as steadily as possible with the speaker facing
> the crossbill, and then email the recording for analysis along with a link
> to your eBird checklist! External microphones can be purchased that improve
> the recording quality even more; read Bill Schmoker's excellent review<http://blog.aba.org/2012/05/mic-up-that-iphone-follow-up.html>of the topic (for iPhones) and consider purchasing a $25 microphone to
> further improve the sound quality for your crossbill recordings!
> Recordings can be sent directly to the author <may6...> for
> assistance with identification."
>
> Here is the link to Matt Young's complete article on the eBird website:
>
> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/red-crossbill-types
>
> In summary, again from Matt Young:
>
> "Every crossbill recording adds an important piece to the puzzle,
> especially when accompanied by notes on behavior and ecology, including
> tree species used for foraging and nesting. The conservation of crossbill
> call types will depend in large measure on our understanding of their
> complex distributions and ecological associations, and birders can make
> critical contributions to their conservation by recording crossbill calls
> and by reporting their findings."
>
> Thanks for reading. Again, if we can help with anything eBird related,
> please let us know.
>
> And... whether you use eBird or not, you will surely enjoy Chuck Fullmer's
> excellent Red Crossbill photos taken in Delaware yesterday (19 Nov 2012):
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/allseasonshooter/8199982107/in/photostre<https://webmail.salisbury.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=HoipYtqlRUmqMhnoNybZmauNfApXms9Im2o1yr4cM9Ikfqe80HNtG6ukmqQJ8GNd9ARLUWWt3ks.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.flickr.com%2fphotos%2fallseasonshooter%2f8199982107%2fin%2fphotostre>
>
> Happy crossbill hunting (and documenting)!
>
> The MD and DC eBird Teams
>
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