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GBBC Comments

From:

Stan Arnold

Reply-To:

Stan Arnold

Date:

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:41:46 -0500

Hi All,

Since there has been some discussion about the Great Backyard Bird Count on this listserve, I'd like to put in my $.02.

Elaine and I have enjoyed participating in the count for three years now.  I know that many birders in Maryland are not interested in the count; the reason I hear most frequently is that the data is inaccurate.

From my viewpoint, this count gets many many people involved in some form of birding, and generates a lot of enthusiasm for our favored pasttime.  This can only bode well for the ultimate goal shared by many of us:  to help protect and preserve birds and their habitats.

While there are many suspect sightings entered into the data base, I'm sure they are entered in good faith, and usually involve birds that are tough to identify by novice birders.  In most cases I've seen in the past, the GBBC regional coordinator picks up on these unusual sightings and gets them resolved as to validity.  I watched this process work during the count last year, as incredible sightings dropped out of the database, and well documented unusual sightings (such as Jennifer Elmer's YB Chat) remained in the data base.

Another criticism is that the number of birds tallied is inaccurate, because in many or most cases the same birds are counted multiple times, often on each day of the count.  True, one can't rely on the number of birds generated by these data, but my thought is that the founders of the count took this into consideration, and decided that it was much more important to get people involved in the count on a daily basis rather than to generate accurate bird population data.

Perhaps some people don't participate, because they take the word "backyard" literally.  The count is set up so that you can count at any location of your interest, whether it's a feeder on the balcony of a town house apartment, or else an entire wildlife refuge.  Last year, Elaine and I counted the Patuxent River Naval Air Station (6000+ acres?) as one of our "backyard habitats."

The count covers a four-day period over President's Day weekend--Friday through Monday.  A separate list can be submitted for each location on each day.  Lists can still be submitted, through 1 March 2008.

With all of this said, I'd like to make some specific comments about this year's data base, which I just checked about 20 minutes ago.  The total number of species tallied so far in Maryland is 142.  This is way down from last year's high of 157 species.  However, this year's species count could go up considerably, if people who saw some of Maryland's exciting winter birds would submit a checklist that included these sightings.  I know that the following species, which are not currently in the data base, were seen in Maryland over the four-day period of the count.  They are:

White-winged Scoter
Northern Shrike
Evening Grosbeak

(BTW, I'm fairly certain that the WW Crossbill was not seen during this count)

I also know that the following species have been seen recently, but am not sure if they were seen during the four-day period:

Red-necked Grebe
Am. White Pelican

While I haven't seen reports of these, the following species are almost always present in Maryland all winter, and were likely seen by someone during the weekend, especially with all of the field trips to the coast over the weekend:

Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron

In other words, the number of species seen in Maryland over the four-day period is probably much greater than that shown in the data base.

On the flip side, there are some sightings entered in the data base that I find exceptional, and would need some documentation to my way of thinking:  

Black-headed Gull in Westminster.  Any gull in Carroll Co., other than Ring-billed, is a good find.  This particular species would probably be unprecedented in Carroll Co. (Bob?)

17 Great Cormorants in Huntingtown, Calvert Co.  One of these was mine, which I thought to be a rather exceptional find along the Patuxent River.  Sixteen more would be utterly phenomenal.

4 Sedge Wrens in Bathesda (perhaps one bird submitted all four days?).  Most of us county listers would love to find this bird in any county.

So, there is some valid criticism of this count, but it does get a lot of arm-chair birders enthused during the winter doldrums, and is just plain fun for a lot of folks.  Personally, I'd like to see the count taken more seriously, particularly among Maryland's top birders.  The more good data that is entered, the better the count, and the more accurate the comparison of data between states and provinces.

Hope everyone is getting good feeder activity during all of this snow, sleet, ice, and frozen rain.  It's a great day to be home.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale






-----Original Message-----
>From: Jay K <>
>Sent: Feb 22, 2008 8:23 AM
>To: 
>Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Purple Finch - GBBC question
>
>Hi Jeff,
>
>I went ahead and submitted today the list of birds from Monday at the PABU spot along with the bird.  Of course, it was flagged as unusual and will need to be reviewed before being entered into the public list.  Others may have entered this and other interesting birds that have not yet been cleared, as I do not know how quickly this process is being completed.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jay Keller
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Jeff Shenot <>
>>Sent: Feb 21, 2008 12:50 PM
>>To: 
>>Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Purple Finch - GBBC question
>>
>>Karen:
>>
>>I am surprised but pleased to hear the folks at GBBC (Cornell) have a regional 
>>coordinator to ask about the GBBC reports that are submitted.  There are 
>>usually some highly questionable reports that are submitted every year, 
>>presumably due to a simple misidentification (i.e., raven v. crow), or else 
>>someone being careless and entering their number observed in the wrong 
>>square on the form.  From my feeder experience, you've got extraordinary 
>>counts for both PUFI (19)  and AMGO (150); I've never seen that many of 
>>either finches at a feeder, and I would gladly trade some of your 100+ finches 
>>for some of our 100's of marauding blackbirds, grackles and cowbirds!!
>>
>>BTW, I checked MD's 2008 reports for the GBBC, and MD did very well this 
>>year (138 species).  As mentioned above, the number of ravens reported is 
>>probably way off (67 birds, from 20 locations - at least half of the locations 
>>have probably no documented ravens observed; I know they seem to be 
>>expanding their MD range, but its not to this extent).  I wonder if the GBBC 
>>regional reviewers are aware of this aspect of concern, and if so I wonder 
>>what their threshold is (it should only be one bird, for any reported species 
>>that is not normally present or found in certain geographic locations).
>>
>>On the other hand, there are probably quite a few great (interesting) birds 
>>that do get observed and reported to GBBC, that never get posted on 
>>MDOsprey.  For example, a few interesting MD birds reported this year:
>>
>>96 different localities with reports of purple finches! (585 birds)
>>19 different localities with reports of pine siskins (116 birds)
>>4 different reports of snow buntings from PG County! (12 birds)
>>1 report of lapland longspur from PG County (2 birds)
>>
>>Also, two interesting MD celebrity birds that were not reported but I think may 
>>have been observed this weekend are the WWCR and PABU.
>>
>>Where I live has been pretty slow in terms of recent bird movement.  
>>However, yesterday's weather seemed to stir up some change - I saw 3 
>>species at our house that I had missed for the entire GBBC period (4 days) 
>>last weekend (Purple Finch, YB Sapsucker, A. Tree Sparrow).
>>
>>Let's hope this week's weather brings in some more excitement!
>>Jeff Shenot
>>Croom MD
>>
>