[cobirds] eBird reporting and hotspots

Greetings COBRIDERS.
  

Van Remsen, a former Coloradan and now one of the world's foremost ornithologists, was visiting here last week. In preparation for his visit, he used eBird to decide where to go. In the process of this, he noticed that many lists contained birds that were clearly not seen at the location indicated. Sometimes this was stated in the notes (one list was for Crow Valley and Andrick Ponds, which are many miles apart and in different counties), sometimes not. 

The reason for eBird hotspots is, in large part, so that accurate bargraphs can be generated for that location as well as detect changes over the years at that location. Not near there, not on the way there (a small, but not tiny, number of lists start at the persons home and then continue to the final destination), but at the hotspot. Some locations are nebulous (like "near Behrens Reservoir), so a 5 mile radius makes sense. Some have discrete, or fairly discrete boundaries such as wildlife management areas, state parks, etc. Please, help keep the data accurate by only reporting what you see at a given location. For instance, Crow Valley and the actual Pawnee Grasslands (that is, Murphy's Pasture) are different spots. Please don't combine them as one list. It confuses those who will try to use these data to make management decisions or discern trends. For instance, this year there are a number of Lark Buntings at Crow Valley. This is unusual. If you've been combining lists from Crow and Murphy's Pasture, that oddity will be obscured.

Thank You for your patience by reading this. Your help would be most appreciated

Steven Mlodinow

Longmont CO

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