Hi Everyone,

It's exciting to see so many MD and DC birders using eBird (www.ebird.org) and to consistently see MD among the top 10 states in number of eBird checklists submitted each month.  We are making a big contribution to bird science and conservation!  For examples of this, you might be interested in the links at the bottom of this message.

But the main purpose of this note is to provide a link to some helpful information from the Wisconsin eBird Team about including comments when reporting an unusual sighting or count.  If one of your 2012 resolutions is to become a better eBirder--and apparently many folks around the country have made this resolution--reading the information at this link ought to help.  Some of the examples are Wisconsin-specific, but the whole write-up is applicable to eBirding in general:

http://ebird.org/content/wi/news/theimportanceofcomments

You might also be interested in reading a recent blog post from Ted Floyd about his enthusiasm for eBird (thanks to John Hubbell for sharing this):

http://blog.aba.org/2011/12/ebird-changed-my-life.html

Finally here are some excellent examples of how your data are going to very good use:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/plos
and...    http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/2011-state-of-the-birds

If you have not looked into eBird yet, but are curious about it, feel free to send me an email.  I'd be happy to answer questions and to help you get started.

Happy New Year!

Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD

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