For the past few months I have been taking part in something called the eBird Site Survey. The idea behind the survey is to repeatedly count birds from the same location in the same way. Whether you do this every day or every week, the concept is to simply try to go birding the same way and enter your sightings into eBird. You can do this from your backyard, Stewart Park, Sapsucker Woods--any place you want (before moving, I did this at Myers Point).
I've been doing this about 5 out of 7 days each week this year. I count birds for 30 minutes from our backyard at Monkey Run 15 minutes after sunrise. Of course, Jessie and I also enter other checklists from here at other times of day but I try to make sure to do this each day. I know that I have seen A LOT more birds because I want to get up each day and really keep track of what's there. This morning I saw my 67th species for the year from our yard (a Tree Swallow), had our first singing Purple Finch and a lot of other small discoveries that help make birding so enjoyable. The dynamics of migration quickly become evident as you spent time watching and recording what you see. You begin to understand when the local birds breed, when the intensity of their singing peaks, and when they quiet down to be inconspicuous around a nest with young. But perhaps the best thing about entering these into eBird is that we can begin to understand bird populations with this granularity across a vast spatial scale. Imagine not just your backyard or local patch, but thousands of backyards and birding sites sewn together across the landscape providing a real-time snapshot of living bird communities--all available to scientists with the click of a button. This is the concept of the eBird Site Survey. If you haven't used eBird in a while, or ever, or even if you use it all the time, I encourage you to give the site survey a try. Even if you are only standing in your yard and recording birds for five minutes a day, I think you'll be surprised at what you see, how much you learn, and how much fun you have. The site survey is a great way to start using eBird too. You don't need to be an expert. This is something all of us can do. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to try to help. Below is a link to more information on the site survey: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/eBird_Site_Survey Here is my checklist from this morning--direct from eBird. Location: 31 Monkey Run Road Observation date: 3/30/10 Notes: WEATHER: Overcast. 34F. North wind 7 - 12 mph. Number of species: 27 Canada Goose 2 Hooded Merganser 2 A pair flying close together low over trees to the south. Herring Gull (American) 1 Mourning Dove 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Blue Jay 13 Up to 13 sitting up in the top of the conifers together at one time--it seemed as if there was one main group of 8 birds, a pair, and another group of 3. American Crow 7 Tree Swallow 1 **NEW YARD BIRD. Single flyover fairly low over treetops. 67th species for the year. Black-capped Chickadee 8 Tufted Titmouse 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch 4 White-breasted Nuthatch 3 Carolina Wren 2 Two singing. American Robin 25 About 20 flyovers and 5 in trees or on ground. European Starling 2 Cedar Waxwing 24 Perched along little creek to SE. Fox Sparrow (Red) 2 One under feeders; the other singing. Song Sparrow 6 White-throated Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 10 Northern Cardinal 4 Common Grackle 1 Flyover Brown-headed Cowbird 1 Flyover. Purple Finch 1 One singing persistently to the south for about 10 minutes. I've had a couple flyovers this year, but this was the first Purple Finch that I've heard singing. American Goldfinch 1 Flyover. This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) Cheers, Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
