Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:21:32 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Derek C. Richardson" Subject: Re: Thoughts on eBird In-Reply-To: <000001c3ad5f$bce18320$6400a8c0@NORM> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I would like to heartily endorse eBird and in particular single out Mike Powers for doing an amazing job at dealing with queries and suggestions. Several features I requested months ago have been implemented and he's always eager to add more. I now send all my North American sightings to eBird (as a relatively new birder I did not have my own electronic system in place before discovering eBird). The URL is www.ebird.org -- definitely check it out! Citizen science in action. -Derek On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Norm Saunders wrote: > I want to thank Scott Crabtree for bringing eBird to our attention > again. I remember hearing about eBird and making a mental note to > myself to check in in 6 months or so to see how it was doing. > > This time I did take the time to go to the eBird site and have a good > look around. Following my look, I posted a question to the eBird > folks about data entry and thus began a very interesting dialog with > Mike Powers, the eBird project leader at Cornell Labs. > > I maintain an electronic database of sightings now and I will continue > to keep that database since it has more detailed information than is > currently requested by eBird. This isn't to say that I think eBird is > a bad idea--I don't and I think it may offer some hope for an online > database, updated regularly, that would ultimately replace all the > local sightings compilers, etc. Why not write the seasons reports in > North American Birds and in MD Birdlife from this online resource, > assuming of course that enough people could be convinced to enter > their sightings in a timely manner? > > My query to eBird had to do with what facility existed for doing > remote entry of large quantities of already existing sightings data. > Mike Powers noted that while this capability isn't yet in place, it's > high on his list of priority items. Once this becomes easier to do, > I'll be happy to begin loading our personal data base into eBirds and > I would hope others here in Maryland would do so as well. > > To make this new system work for us, we need to use it, we need to > populate it with older data, and we need to get MOS and other > organizations to actively tout the system. > > Having said all this, I would note for Scott's benefit, that a lot of > folks are already heavily involved in sending their data, either > directly or indirectly, to Marshall Iliff (author of the Central East > Coast seasons writeup in North American Birds) and to those who are > still, I guess, compiling the seasons reports in MD Birdlife. > > Posting your sightings here on MDOsprey is one very easy way to get > that information across. Sending your seasonal MD sightings to Jim > Stasz on a periodic basis to include in his massive state data base is > another. Many counties in MD have a designated bird records > coordinator, as well, to gather data directly from the partcipants or > indirectly from MDOsprey and other sources for submission to those > noted above. > > In short, many of us participate already in the gathering of data for > analysis. eBird may well be the central repository of the future but > there are ways now to get your information put to good use! > > Thanks again to Scott Crabtree, Mike Powers, and Professor J. V. > Remsen for providing me with some fascinating discussion and a > well-written article on keeping good field notes. > > Best, > Norm > > > ================================ > Norm Saunders > Colesville & West Ocean City, MD > marshhawk@att.net > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= -- Derek C. Richardson, Ph.D. (CANTAB) ________ Astronomy, U Maryland, College Park MD 20742 Tel: Office 301-405-8786 Fax 301-314-9067 __ Home page: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/ __ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================