As I increase my use of eBird, I am starting to appreciate what the site has to offer and its importance (I do think there is a bright future for this method of recording bird sightings). Of course, there's nothing like having regional coordinators and Alan Wormington of the Pelee Birding Circle and Roy Smith of the GTA are amazing at keeping records and helping with data collection. This is obviously the best way to submit sightings as it's more personal and you can get a dialogue going around your personal records, often with great feedback like whether the bird you saw was reported around the same time, whether your sighting is record early or of significant note for the number of birds you saw, etc. And, every once in a while, they'll tell you you were probably wrong. That's often a good lesson, too.
However, eBird is a great tool. It can feel pretty impersonal but at the same time, there's just so much potential when more people use the site. Instant graphs, trends, sharing your sightings with members of your group, a place to keep your lists while also contributing to a larger database, and a much faster way of getting your list saved without having to type out every species in a word document (which I've been doing for years). I feel I need to spend a bit more time really experimenting with some of the features to get a better grasp on what the site is capable of.
Another incredible benefit of eBird is that it gets you to pay more attention when you're out there. I'm a bit of a lister at heart so I love the feeling of having not only a list for the day, but a number of lists for each location you've visited in that given day. I notice that I pay more attention to every bird I see now, and make a mental note of which species I've seen where, sometimes how many. Maybe a bit obsessive but it sure keeps me more focused (and often makes me stay out longer).
Eventually, I plan to input every list I have stored away in my records. I have lists from countless trips home in the spring, trips to Florida, to the east coast, Long Point, and countless others. Lists that all exist in hard copy as ticks on a regional checklist booklet. It'll be a long undertaking but I plan to get all of my lists I've ever kept onto the site.
Unfortunately, there are many additional features I wish eBird had. However, the site likely will have them given time and donations. One such feature for example...can I see the total number of species I reported on a given day? If I can, I don't know how to do it easily.
For now, I realized you can download your lists in an excel file, easy for copying and pasting right into Cerulean Sky. Great for posting day lists.
My lists for Sunday, April 18, 2010.
Ashbridges Bay
Species Number reported
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan 4
Gadwall X
Mallard X
Ring-necked Duck 2
Lesser Scaup X
Greater/Lesser Scaup X
Long-tailed Duck X
Bufflehead X
Red-breasted Merganser 8
Double-crested CormorantX
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Iceland Gull 4
Common Tern X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher X
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) X
Eastern Phoebe 1
American Crow 2
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Brown Creeper 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch X
Total: 38
Lakeshore Blvd E & Leslie Street
Red-tailed Hawk (Eastern) 1
Ring-billed Gull x
Rock Pigeon x
Leslie Street Spit (Tommy Thompson Park)
Canada Goose X
Gadwall X
Mallard X
Greater/Lesser Scaup X
Long-tailed Duck X
Bufflehead X
Red-breasted Merganser X
Double-crested CormorantX
Killdeer X
Ring-billed Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) X
American Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin X
European Starling X
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
House Sparrow X
Total: 28
Colonel Sam Smith Park
Mute Swan X
Gadwall X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal 1
Green-winged Teal (American) 1
Bufflehead X
Red-breasted Merganser X
Red-necked Grebe 9
Western Grebe 1
Double-crested CormorantX
American Kestrel 1
Killdeer X
Ring-billed Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Tree Swallow X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Total: 21
While Driving
Canada Goose X
Ring-billed Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
American Robin X
European Starling X
Common Grackle X
House Sparrow X
Total: 7
5 comments:
Hmmm...never used it yet
Jeremy, thanks for informing about ebird. I've joined it and also have started getting email reports. The seasonal data plots for various birds in various regions is very cool.
-Dwayne
Hi Jeremy. I looked into using ebird a while back, but I was put off by the lack of Canadian observations (Ontario). Is there a more steady following in Ontario nowadays? I mean, it only makes sense to use this system if a significant fraction of the birders use it...
sonofjon,
There is definitely an increase in the number of sightings from Toronto and our Club, the Toronto Ornithological Club, is starting to submit sightings to the site to increase the frequency of GTA sightings at least and start a database of sightings this way.
I agree that the lack of Ontario sightings can be frustrating (no data analysis available then), but with more people adding, it can only get better, right?
I find it's a free place to keep my sightings handy and if my computer has a meltdown, I don't have to worry about backing everything up.
I was hesitant at first but when you start getting used to the features, it improves. One great feature is the ability to share your sightings with other people who you birded with that day and the list is automatically added to their own lists. Great so that not everyone in the group has to input sightings separately.
One of those sites that is in its early stages and there is a lot of transition that still has to happen but with some simple improvements, it will be an excellent tool for citizen science.
Thanks for the comments. You pulled me over the barrier. I'm signed up!
Oh dear, now I'm gonna have to look for all those common species that I never write down in my notebook. Kestrel, Black duck, Nuthatches, etc. Hmmm, that's probably a good thing!
Happy birding.
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