Greetings COBirders and WSBN birders,
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-- I'm happy to share the news that the CO Combined Yard List is now up on Google Sheets and accessible to all via the link below. A huge thanks to all who have contributed and made this such an interesting and fun collaborative project, and especially to Bryan Guarente for his help in getting this list up and running on Google Sheets.
Current statistics:
400 Species100+ Contributors30 Counties represented3200 Total ticks
I would like to share a few thoughts about the list for clarity in terms of its goals and what expectations we might have for it.
This list is a collective effort to discover and document how many of the species on Colorado's official state bird list have been observed, identified, and recorded from a yard. It highlights the incredible diversity of yard habitats in Colorado, our remarkable breadth of coverage of Colorado's avian species, and the value of birding in the ultimate of local patches, our yards. I hope this list will continue to grow, be an interesting resource, and be a fun way of connecting with other birders across the state.
One of the main goals is to reflect the communal effort by ensuring that everyone's contribution is in some way represented and recognized. As much thought and care as there was put into the matching of species and viewer (method outlined below), it wasn't possible to pair everyone with each of our favorite, or most memorable species. The answer to this is the Additional Sightings feature in Column H, which gives the option of adding one's name and sighting to species that are personally meaningful.
You'll notice the absence of dates on the list. This is something Bryan and I debated about, and eventually decided not to include due to various challenges and considerations. One challenge is that many of us keep yardlists without dates of sightings, or just general "Summer of '73" kind of notes. If there is enough interest in adding this data set, we could add an editable column for it.
The current list total of 400 species reflects the uncertain status of two species: Tundra Swan and Glossy Ibis. Both species required leaving the yard to confirm the ID, something that would be potentially permitted under Big Sit rules, but perhaps not acceptable under the most inclusive yard listing rules. My initial response was to include them. But then I had second thoughts. Perhaps it would be best to leave them off the list, unless there is overwhelming support to include them.
While there is no formal review (a la eBird or CBRC), the intent is to be as accurate and pure as possible. As new species are added to the list, it would be ideal, especially for rare species, for contributors to include a link to an eBird or CBRC report.
It's worth mentioning that this list is neither intended nor set up to be a database for complete yard lists.
**If you happen to notice a species with "Viewer" listed as Anonymous that you believe is actually your sighting, and you would like to have your name listed, please let me know and I will make the changes. This would really only apply to sightings of species sourced from CBRC and eBird reports.
**If you ticked off a species on Bryan Guarente's Google sheet, but don't see your name listed here, and would like your sighting to be included, please consider using the Additional Sightings feature in Column H (instructions for data entry below).
**If there are any first state record sightings on this list that happen not to be attributed to the original viewer, please let me know. It would be nice for the original viewer to receive the recognition.
A Brief Overview:
There are three sheets:1) The list in Taxonomic Order2) The list in Alphabetical Order3) A Needs List in both Taxonomic and Alphabetical OrderYou can navigate from one to the other by clicking on the tabs at the bottom margin.
The Link:
The Taxonomic List: The Place to Add Data
The Taxonomic List is set up so that data may be entered for new species (the blank cells in Columns D-G). If you have any species to add to the list, please feel free to enter the information in the appropriate cells. It would be great to have complete information on each species (Name, City, County) rather than just a tick. Links to eBird reports and/or photos would be terrific, especially for the rarer species.If you would like to remain anonymous that's totally fine, of course. I would just ask you to consider sharing your sighting with me directly via email (I will not share any names), just to have some way to verify that it's an actual sighting (and not bot generated 🙂).Data that's already entered in Columns A-G is protected. Please let me know if you see any errors, misspellings, etc in the data already entered. I'll be happy to make corrections and edits.
**Column H: Additional Sightings**
Detailed instructions (with screenshots) on how to enter data to come in a separate email, but here is a not-so-brief description of how to enter additional sightings.
Notice that each cell in Column H (for species currently listed/ticked) has a small downward facing arrow along the right margin. Clicking on this arrow reveals a dropdown list. I've set up several as examples.
1) Click on the small downward-facing arrow. This will reveal a short list of names & counties, or "Option 1", "Option 2", or a combination of the two. Below this, in the bottom right corner, is a small pencil symbol (otherwise known as the "Edit button").
2) Click on the pencil symbol. This will open a sidebar along the right side of the browser window with the heading "Data validation rules." From top to bottom, you will see "Apply to Range" & "Criteria" and corresponding cells. Ignore those, no changes necessary. Below that you will see cells that contain "Option 1" or "Option 2". If both Option 1 and Option 2 boxes have been filled out with other observations, you may click on the box that reads "Add another item" in green text.
3) Click on the first available cell, delete the text that says "Option 1" or "Option 2", and replace it with your name and county (example: Thomas Heinrich, Boulder).
4) Click on the green "Done" button at the very bottom of the sidebar. A pop-up window will appear, which will ask "Apply to all? There are ### other dropdowns with the same properties, do you want to make changes to all of them?"
5) Be sure to click on the "Just this instance" button only please 🙏, otherwise potential chaos. If you accidentally click on "Apply to all", you can undo the mistake by pressing the Command and Z keys simultaneously.
6) After clicking "Just this instance", you'll notice that the cell still appears blank. Click on the small arrow one more time. This will reveal the dropdown box again, this time including your name & county. Click on your name & county. The cell will now list your entry, and you're done.
Note that this dropdown feature allows one to toggle between the various additional sightings for each species. Anna's Hummingbird, for example, has been seen in five yards. The Primary viewer is listed as Bill Schmoker, with additional sightings from Rachel H, Tina J, David S, and Brad B. At the moment, Rachel H, Larimer is displayed in Column H. But Tina, David, or Brad might like to have their name appearing in that cell at some point, and use the dropdown feature to select their entry.
Links to Colorado Bird Records Committee or eBird Reports (Column I)An option for those wishing to share a link to a CBRC or eBird report of a personal sighting. Please provide links only to sightings of your own, out of respect for others' privacy or desire to remain anonymous. At the moment, the list is set up with space for only one link per species. (This could be adjusted if there's interest in having more than one link per species.)
Links to Photos (Column J)An option for those wishing to share a link to a photo of a personal sighting. I've entered one for a Northern Pygmy Owl from my yard as an example. This is using a hyperlink that, when clicked on, will take you directly to the photo. As with Column I, there's only space for one link per species at the moment. (This could be adjusted if there's interest in having more than one link per species.)
The Alphabetical & Needs Lists
These sheets are protected entirely, so it is not possible to edit or add data to these sheets. At the moment, because these pages are not linked to the Taxonomic List, data entered in the Taxon List does not automatically appear in the Alpha List (or disappear in the Needs Lists). For now, I will manually update the Alpha and Needs list, and hope to get the lists linked eventually.
Sources:
Posts to COBirdsEmail sent directlyCBRC reportseBird reports
Steps in pairing Species with Viewers:
1) Recorded unique sightings as they came in (the easy part)2) Took note of favorite, rare, and memorable species as shared by each contributor3) Matched each contributor with three species, prioritizing favorite, rare, and memorable species4) Second round, upped the species per contributor to five5) Third round, upped the species per contributor to seven, where possible6) Distributed the remaining species
Best wishes for a fruitful Spring migration, and happy yard birding!
Thomas
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