Good points Matt. I've been working on some non-Maryland eBird filters
recently, and one thing I've realized is that even with the ability to set
filters based upon a specific day, rather than the start of the month, they
will always be arbitrary to some extent. You have to pick a single day as
a dividing line between records that need confirmation and records that do
not � there is no middle ground. But bird abundance is seldom like that.
And even when there is a sudden influx of new arrivals, it is unlikely to
happen on the same day each year and cannot be reliably predicted in
advance.
So for me, the lesson here is that during a transitional migration period
such as April, one should expect a handful of eBird filter
anomalies--either birds that don't need to be confirmed or some that
should. But this may not mean the filters need to be adjusted--it may just
be the nature of an imperfect process.
Good birding!
Jim Moore
Rockville
On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Matt Hafner <hafner.matt...> wrote:
> I've seen a lot of comments in recent eBird reports that many people are
> surprised that Golden-crowned Kinglets are being flagged right now in many
> counties. Several of us eBird reviewers were surprised as well, so we
> looked at the data.
>
> First, you may recall that in previous years, the end of April was a mess
> with eBird rare bird alerts. We had to set filters based on calendar
> month, so the filter developers had to make a choice: Allow Acadian
> Flycathers to be reported on April 1 or make everyone click "rare species"
> at the end of April to report them. Fortunately, this is no longer an
> issue and we can set filters by day.
>
> Last August, eBird developed new filters statewide based on data submitted
> to eBird. This wasn't perfect and some of those have been edited, and a
> few still need to be edited. Sometimes it's difficult for us to notice a
> filter issue until we see a species pop up repeatedly on the Rare Bird
> Alert. This was the case with Pectoral Sandpiper this year, it's a regular
> March migrant and was getting flagged everywhere!
>
> Back to Golden-crowned Kinglet. This species really is having an above
> average April in MD. *http://tinyurl.com/d3ensty *The filters are set
> to flag them on either the 14th or 15 April all over the state (except
> Garrett where they breed) which, looking at the data, seems about right.
> *
> *
> So while the filter may seem off for this year, "I'm seeing Golden-crowned
> Kinglets everywhere, why are they flagged!", the filter is set for an
> average year for the species. Right now, it's not feasible for us to adjust
> the filters every year for different species depending on local abundance.
>
> Please bear with us as we try to set the filters properly over all of
> Maryland and know that things will only get better as time goes on. You
> can email any and all filter comments, questions, and suggestions to me.
>
> And enjoy all these mid-April Golden-crowned Kinglets!
>
> Good eBirding!
>
> Matt Hafner
> Forest Hill, MD
>
>
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