Hi Everyone,

eBird posted a news item entitled "Guidelines for Reporting Sensitive Species" today:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/sensitive_species.

It's a nice summary and it contains important reminders on birding ethics. As with any new birding technology, it's up to us to self-police on the proper handling of sensitive species. 

I would add one additional option to the list provided by eBird, which is to report sensitive species - especially annual or lingering individuals (i.e., breeding, wintering) - at the COUNTY level. I do this for all Barn Owls roosts, for example. To do so, click on "Submit Observations" and then "Select an entire city, county, or state." You can then easily query for the county of interest. (Note: Leave off the apostrophes in Prince George's and Queen Anne's.) Remember that your species-level comments will eventually be visible, so in these specific cases limit any location details to the report-level (overall) comments, if anywhere. 

(Under normal circumstances, the more details, the better!)

Good birding!

Bill

Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland

http://www.billhubick.com