Re: [cobirds] Christmas Bird Counts - the Preregistration "process"

An additional quirk that applies only to compilers and may have been idiosyncratic to me: yesterday I received an email notice of a string of people registering for the Barr Lake count. After an initial burst of excitement about the early registrations, I realized it was simply a notification of all of the volunteers who registered last year.

And for the benefit of the compiler, I do urge that birders register for the count online. That way the compilers will have your contact information in one place when they need to send updates on the count.

Chuck Hundertmark

303-604-0531

chundertmark8@gmail.com

On Nov 26, 2015, at 8:16 AM, Douglas Kibbe <dpkibbe@msn.com> wrote:

As Brandon pointed out, it is now possible to preregister for your favorite CBC and I encourage all to do so; particularly for the Rawhide CBC which will be held New Years Day, Friday Jan. 1, 2016.  It is a great way to jump start your 2016 year list!
As has been the case for the past decade, the Audubon registration site is not user friendly and has a number of quirks which even experienced users find frustrating.  Part of the problem is that a number of count compilers have failed to register the date they intend to hold the count.  In these cases, the count is listed along with the compiler but if you try to register for it you may get an error message and nothing else.  I believe this problem will rectify itself if the compilers go online with National Audubon and register the date they plan to hold the count.  Some of them have posted on cobirds and/or sent notices to past participants but have failed to go onto the National Audubon site and post the date.  Failure to do so will likely prevent participants from preregistering.
A second quirk is that the system does not always add a count to your list of CBCs which you are preregistering.  If you, in frustration, double click on the count registration box, you (and the count compiler) will receive two (or more) notices in your email in box that you are registered for the count.  
 This will excite the compiler who thinks that more observers are coming on the CBC but causes no real harm.
A final quirk (but I'm sure it is not the only one), is that once you exit the registration site it is difficult to get back in and add additional counts.  Instead it tries to get you to donate.  I have yet to figure out how to bypass that hurdle.
Consequently, while I urge you to use the site (and let National Audubon know what you think of it), I would suggest that you also contact the count compiler directly to confirm the count date and to let them know that you intend to participate.
Doug Kibbe
Littleton

---

Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2015 14:08:17 +0000
From: flammowl17@gmail.com
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] Christmas Bird Counts

Hi all and Happy Thanksgiving.

You can now sign up for Christmas Bird Counts.

http://netapp.audubon.org/cbc/public/

Brandon Percival

Colorado CBC Regional Editor

Pueblo West, CO

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1316688042.10415241.1448546897614.JavaMail.yahoo%40mail.yahoo.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/BLU174-W31E5C391E56E4F10F22CF4B6040%40phx.gbl.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.