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Re: eBird & duplicate Hughes Hollow hotspot locations

From:

Michael Bowen

Reply-To:

Michael Bowen

Date:

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:03:24 -0400

I have checked with Marshall Iliff, who is not only a sometime 
Maryland birder, but one of the principal architects and operators of 
eBird, on the subject of the two separate "hotspots" for Hughes 
Hollow that Paul Woodward is concerned about, per his recent post to MDOsprey.

Marshall and I both agree with Paul that birders who submit 
observations to eBird that were taken at Hughes Hollow in Montgomery 
County should use the eBird Shared Location called "Hughes Hollow - 
McKee Beshers WMA."

The other close by Shared Location, called "Hughes Hollow", is a 
perfectly valid location, but contains far fewer data than the one 
with the longer name.  Ideally it should not exist, but eBird does 
not currently have the software to eliminate it and combine the 
sightings with the longer established "Hughes Hollow - McKee Beshers WMA."

Those of you on this list-serv who bird at Hughes Hollow are 
earnestly requested to use the longer established Shared Location, 
whether or not you actually bird all over the WMA (which is very 
large).  If you look for the location in eBird's "Find it on a Map" 
facility, you will see that the location with McKee Beshers in the 
name is located farther south on the Google map that the "Hughes 
Hollow" location.  Clicking on the relevant "stickpin" on the map 
gives you the assigned name of the location.

Anyone confused by the above or who has additional questions or 
comments should contact me off-line.  I assist eBird on a voluntary 
basis to assess recommendations for new Hotspots in Maryland, which 
continue to flow in regularly.  One of the things eBird tries hard 
not to do is to set up duplicate locations, which cannot currently be 
removed once established.

Mike Bowen
Bethesda, MD


At 12:09 PM 4/20/2008 -0400, Paul Woodward wrote:
>     For people who have a particular interest in the Hughes Hollow 
> area, it is encouraging to see more people using E-bird to enter 
> their sightings for McKee-Beshers WMA (Hughes Hollow) in Montgomery 
> County.    However, recently these records have become more 
> fragmented and harder to find.  For some inexplicable reason Hughes 
> Hollow has been duplicated as a "Hot Spot" and someone has created 
> a personalized Hughes Hollow E-bird site, all of which makes it 
> harder to find all the records.
>      In the early days of E-bird you could find a map of the 
> general McKee-Beshers area with all the locations (Hot Spots and 
> personalized ones) marked so all the records could be seen.  But 
> now this function no longer exists, and it is much harder to get an overview.
>     I'd like to suggest that  bird sightings for Hughes Hollow 
> (McKee-Beshers) be entered under the Hot Spot  "Hughes 
> Hollow-McKee-Beshers WMA".  I, for one, have great interest in the 
> area.   I find the sightings of others at Hughes Hollow to be of 
> great interest, and I thank all who put their lists on E-bird.
>Thanks,
>
>Paul Woodward
>Fairfax City, VA
>

D.H. Michael Bowen
8609 Ewing Drive
Bethesda, MD  20817
Telephone: (301) 530-5764
e-mail:  dhmbowenATyahooDOTcom