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Re: County Lists

From:

Phil Davis

Reply-To:

Phil Davis

Date:

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:25:47 -0500

MD Osprey:

Just a bit of background and clarification ... 
shortly before I took over as Secretary of the 
MD/DC Records Committee in 1994, the committee 
decided to take itself out of the "county first 
record" and early arrival/late departure business 
and keep it's focus on the status of taxa at the 
state level. So, from the early days of the 
committee, you will some accepted records that 
may not make sense in the context of today's 
review list, for example the Buff-breasted 
Sandpiper in Sep 1979 in Howard County (a county 
first) or a Lesser Yellowlegs in Jan 1985 in 
Frederick County (an unusual date).

The MD/DCRC database can help for state-level 
rarities, since some species are reviewable if 
seen anywhere in the state (e.g., Lazuli Bunting) 
while other species are reviewable only if seen 
in certain ranges (e.g., the species in review 
list category "4D" - species if seen west of the 
Washington/Frederick county line," such as Laughing Gull.)

Some counties dedicate significant effort in 
maintaining their own county lists (e.g., Howard 
and Harford; Mark Hoffman for Worcester; Cecil is 
underway, etc.). Other than that, the task of 
maintaining the tally of which species have been 
seen in each county in the state has fallen to 
some combination of the Maryland Birdlife 
seasonal editor (Bob Ringler) and/or databases 
maintained by Jim Stasz, Marshall Iliff, and/or 
Norm Saunders. This effort is always of interest 
whenever a new version of the "Yellow Book" is in preparation.

Hope this helps ...

Phil


At 05:24 11/19/2008, Norm Saunders wrote:
>Joe Hanfman asks:
>
> > My follow up question is how are the county species numbers
> > determined on the yearly Locality Report.
>
>My county totals are based on a spreadsheet I 
>got about 5 years ago from Marshall 
>Iliff.  Since then I have added to it from the 
>MD/DC Records Committee data.  Check their 
>official list of the birds of Maryland and DC 
>and then for particular species, dig into the 
>detailed database maintained online at the MOS 
>website.  Reports of species NOT covered by the 
>records committee probably aren’t making it 
>into my list.  The county totals in the List 
>Reporting form should NOT be construed as an 
>official listing....just as close an accounting 
>as I am able to make from the MD/DC RC data.
>
>Norm

===================================================
Phil Davis, Secretary
MD/DC Records Committee
2549 Vale Court
Davidsonville, Maryland  21035     USA
301-261-0184
mailto:[log in to unmask]

MD/DCRC Web site:  http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html
===================================================