Hi Everyone,

Some eBird users may have noted that the Google Gadget has been flooded with an unusually high volume of flagged reports, many of which are actually on-time arrivals. After a good discussion with Matt Hafner and then reading a post from Marshall Iliff on the subject, I thought I'd write a few words here.

Because eBird filters are set by the county and the month, we must make a tough choice regarding species that arrive in late April. We must choose between abundant flagged reports of species such as Wood Thrush and Orchard Oriole on April 28th or allowing April 1st reports of later-arriving species to enter without review. The consensus is to err on the conservative side for the sake of our data integrity. So, please bear with the many flagged reports for a few more days! In the future, eBird intends to implement a more granular filter system. In the mean time, I think most of us would rather see too many reports on the Google Gadget than too few!

If you do notice species that shouldn't be flagged even on April 1st in your county, please drop me a line. Actually, feel free to write anytime you think a county filter is too loose or too tight. Bob Ringler and Jim Stasz also make updates to the county filters.

Here's a link to Marshall's post on the subject on Mass-Birds:
http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MASS.html#1241020447

His summary of the last week's migration was also excellent:
http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MASS.html#1241021527

Good birding!

Bill

Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland

http://www.billhubick.com