Cayugabirders, Though I think the discussion of what to report certainly has merit, and I think that almost everyone would prefer to have more information than less information made available about birds in the area, we need to be careful about expecting everyone to keep up with the demands of the popular, fun, useful (in that it gets people out birding and generates lots of neat records), but ultimately frivolous basin year listing competition in order to report "blocker" birds and first records on the listserv. I find it reasonable that news of a Tompkins County golden-plover or Sanderling, etc didn't go on the listserv straightaway the minute it was found (rest assured that if the finders of those birds had located something like a Bar-tailed Godwit or Golden Swallow, the message WOULD have been spread instantaneously). Technology is a great help for birding, but it is perhaps unreasonable for everyone to embrace it to the extent of posting/ text-alerting for every vaguely notable sighting. Scouring eBird, regional status and distribution guides, and going on concerted birdfinding missions (birding with a purpose every time) might be a better way to track down these uncommon migrants, etc.
That being said, I would offer/ suggest that we CAN expand the CayugaRBA text message alert system if that is what users would prefer. Originally the qualifications for RBA birds were these: "temporally or geographically rare birds (i.e. a Broad-winged Hawk in January, or a White Ibis anytime), not [necessarily] for [all] first arrivals or things of that nature." This was mostly to limit text traffic and reduce costs for people that pay per text message. Well, frankly it has been a rather slow fall on the local vagrant front (though a good one for observing general migration if I may say so), and I think we can afford to expand the CayugaRBA to include first records, uncommon migrants, etc. At the same time, I hope that local birders realize that birds like Orange-crowned Warbler, Cackling Goose, etc are NOT exceedingly rare in the Finger Lakes (uncommon migrants might be a better description?), and if everyone split up and searched all the basin's goose flocks or weedy fields instead of converging on a stakeout to pin down a David Cup blocker (and then ignoring geese/ weedy fields thereafter until the next January 1 rolls around), we might have a more realistic picture of this. Relatedly, I might suggest that listserv posts related to birdfinding in the area would be helpful to those of us who like to go out and discover new patches/ hotspots, and might end up having the consequence of eliminating the angst created by "minor" blockers: Where exactly are you finding those Orange-crowns in relation to the edges of fields, and with what plants are they associating?... What is the best microhabitat in which to look for Nelson's Sparrows on migration?... Where the heck can I find a Yellow Rail-catching dog (cheers to John Confer for that record - really pretty amusing/ extraordinary)? As an important explanation, when I started the text RBA (after seeing how well a similar system works in Cape May), I didn't post the access instructions to the listserv because of fear of spam, etc; however, if you are interested in joining (it's a free service, you just pay standard SMS/ text rates), just send me an email ([email protected]) and I will send you the instructions. As another note, I am interested in receiving all spring/ fall quarter sightings in the Finger Lakes region for inclusion in the Kingbird journal, and Mark Chao would appreciate sightings for the summer/ winter reports. Basically, anything you find interesting that doesn't make it on the listserv, we might also value for the journal (we use Cayugabirds as a starting point for writing the reports - the majority of the information I use comes from this awesome resource, especially in conjunction with eBird - thanks to everyone for contributing!). OK, that's my ramble for the year... Cheers, Tom -- Thomas Brodie Johnson Ithaca, NY [email protected] mobile: 717.991.5727 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
