Hi All,
I received a lot of emails today about my response to Dave Nutter’s great
opening rant about folks who don’t report sightings of birds in a timely
manner. I sense that I did not articulate part of my anti-rant as clearly as I
would have liked. Some of you seem to have interpreted me as saying that I
don’t particularly like eBird. Just to set the record straight -- I
wholeheartedly encourage everyone to consider reporting their sightings to
eBird because of the tremendous scientific and conservation benefits associated
with that data set and how it can be used for on-the-ground decision making.
When I was in CA, I made about a dozen point counts in areas with few or no
previous reports to help do a tiny part in filling in some of the geographic
gaps in the data set. As a conservationist, I can easily be an eBird
cheerleader. As a birder, well, that is another story.
In my earlier post, I did mention how I was not a very consistent or
enthusiastic poster to eBird as a birder. I also mentioned that birding for me
is a very personal experience. And I have my very individualized way of both
connecting with birds in the field, and, more to the point, keeping track of my
sightings in ways that are meaningful to me.
I certainly have heard how important it is for some people to be made
aware of rare or unusual species so they can have a chance to see and enjoy
them, and I understand the importance for many people to express their internal
“sharing trait” by wanting to share their sightings with others and helping
others get to see a bird they might otherwise ever have a chance to see. For
those people, the notion of sharing their sightings with others and to have
sightings shared with them are indeed, identity-defining traits (along with
others). They need to do these things to feel like they are being a birder
because that’s who they are as a birder. I totally get that, and I love that
others do these things and have these traits.
For me as a birder, the very same behaviors that I want to encourage as a
conservationist (e.g., helping other people see birds they’ve never seen
before, and reporting my sightings to eBird as data) take on very different
meanings. Those behaviors diminish my sense of personal discovery and the
intimacy of my interaction with nature by reducing my experience to data (the
eBird example) or by inhibiting the very connection to the bird that I have
strived so hard to achieve. In essence, these behaviors become
identity-destroying for me as a birder. Doing these behaviors is like asking
me to drink poison or to become someone who I am not and who I do not want to
become.
As a conservationist, I will defend and support eBird to the death. But,
as a birder, I will submit to eBird sparingly so I can maintain my sense of
identity, my feeling of being the kind of birder I want to be rather than the
kind of birder that someone else might be. And, I really like it that there
are so many different kinds of birders around. If we all were the same, I
think birding would be really boring.
Take care everybody.
Jody
Jody W. Enck, PhD
Program Development and Evaluation
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2471
From: Rob Blye<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 9:58 AM
To: jwe4@cornell. edu<mailto:[email protected]>
Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L<mailto:[email protected]>, Dave
Nutter<mailto:[email protected]>
Jody, Dave and others,
I have some of the same birding behaviors as Jody but one activity I do support
whole-heartedly is the regular and frequent use of Ebird. Ebird lets me keep
track of my bird sightings almost effortlessly. Most importantly, it lets me
contribute to our collective knowledge of bird distribution and populations,
again with very little effort. I have been birding since about 5 years old and
earned my living as a wildlife biologist. Since about 1969, I have filled out
paper checklists that I have stored somewhere. I conducted multi-year bird
populations studies that were entered into corporate data bases with the
assurance that the data would never by erased. But, I don't really know what
birds I have seen and the data from those studies was dumped (without
myknowedge) by a database administrator looking for space (I guess).
I am thrilled with Ebird and at least I know what I have seen and where since I
started using Ebird regularly in 2013. I plan to use the paper records of my
bird population studies and my birding checklists to enter historical data into
Ebird for both personal, selfish reasons and to make the study data available
to others.
Please use Ebird. You could even hide its output if that violates your sense of
privacy.
Rob Blye
CALS 1972
________________________________
From: "Jody W Enck" <[email protected]>
To: "CAYUGABIRDS-L" <[email protected]>, "Dave Nutter"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 8:05:21 AM
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] rare bird rant
Hello All,
I was stimulated by Dave’s well-written email to offer an anti-rant
😊. (And, Dave, please keep your rants coming, because I do enjoy reading
them!) Maybe the fact that I don’t have a cell phone and rarely carry my
little trac-fone with me says a lot about how I approach birding. Encounters
with birds, rare or common, are very personal for me. I think it is great that
others get so excited about chasing birds that others have reported, but that
is not for me. More importantly for me, I really don’t want to have a bunch of
other birders (even my friends) show up and interfere with that very personal
interaction. If that is selfish, then I guess I’ll wear that label proudly. I
am a scientists (both ecological and social) and a conservationist, yet I am
reluctant to submit my sightings to eBird because I don’t want my personal
experiences to be treated as data by others. I know I’m a bit weird about all
this compared to most people. I still have not chased the Tufted Duck, which
I’ve never seen in my life. There was a White-eyed Vireo on the other side of
the Lab of O pond for three days a year or so ago and I never trekked the 150
yards out to see it. Please don’t think I am an anti-lister, either. I
recently was in CA for work and passed the 500 species in the US mark
(Surfbird) pointed out to me by Brian Sullivan (along with my life Black-vented
Shearwater, Common Murre, Rhinoceros Auklet, and Pacific Loon -- see I do go
birding with others sometimes!). Soon after Brian left, I stumbled upon a bird
I did not recognize other than to know it was some kind of sandpiper-ish bird.
I sat for a half hour taking notes, drawing pictures, and taking a few
pictures. Then I had to go do work. Later that night I was excited to find
out that I had encountered a Wandering Tattler (#501 in the US for me;
California Thrasher was my last new one at #502 and California Condor had been
#489 ). I did send Brian and a couple other CA birders a couple pictures for
confirmation. But, I was thrilled and felt a real sense of discovery because I
encountered the bird on my own and had a half hour to really observe it by
myself. I know that is a very different experience than the ones desired by
other birders. And, I totally support Dave’s point of view and do encourage
others to share their sightings if they want to. Just please don’t expect me
to want to 😊!
Thanks Dave for stimulating this discussion.
Jody
Jody W. Enck, PhD
Public Engagement in Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2471
From: Dave Nutter<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 4:59 AM
To: CAYUGABIRDS-L<mailto:[email protected]>
Hey, everybody!
I know seeing a rare bird is tremendously exciting, and I certainly wouldn't
have wanted Mark to miss seeing the chase & interactions or getting those
fantastic photos (plus congratulations on a fantastic life bird!). But please
if at all possible before leaving a rare bird try to get word out on the text
message rare bird alert system. If you are not on the text alert system, or
don't want to take your eyes off the bird long enough to text about it, call
someone else and have them put the word out. There were people in the field
yesterday afternoon who also had been trying to find the Gyrfalcon and could've
returned quickly. A Gyrfalcon was also seen two other times this winter with no
text RBA sent out. But when Tim Lenz did get the word out after a few minutes
of viewing at least 6 additional birders got to see it that morning.
Similarly the Tufted Duck has been quietly seen recently when there was a guy
from out of town who was asking about it. I know it may seem like old news, but
these are still rare birds that people would love to get a chance to see.
Thanks.
--Dave Nutter
607-229-2158
On Feb 27, 2015, at 12:29 AM, M Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
Just wanted to add that I first saw the gyrfalcon at 3 PM (thanks to the couple
parked on Stahl Rd with a scope set up on it). It quickly flew south to land on
the east side of Seybolt Rd (nabbing a duck dinner on it’s way) about 200 yards
south of Stahl Rd. It stayed there for about 20 minutes, then flew back north a
few hundred yards, and was still in the area when I left. Photos can be seen on
the Eaton Birding Society facebook page.
Mark Miller
From: Scott Haber <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: February 26, 2015 at 4:41:52 PM EST
To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>"
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Gyrfalcon
Reply-To: Scott Haber <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
I neglected to mention that Mark got some awesome photos of the Gyr nabbing a
Mallard in flight, and then fighting off two Red-tailed Hawks trying to claim
the carcass on the ground. The photos can be viewed here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=881790955212707&set=pcb.720534001377417&type=1&permPage=1
On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 4:34 PM, Scott Haber
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
The Seneca County Gyrfalcon was relocated this afternoon by Mark Miller on
Seybolt Road in Seneca Falls. More specific locations/directions can be found
on the Cayugabirds list.
-Scott
On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 10:47 AM, <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
Any signs of the gyr today?? If yes, I am planning to go there tomorrow.
Thanks in advance Claude
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