Hello, Birders. Hannah and I swung by McIntosh Lake, Boulder County, yesterday afternoon, Sunday, Oct. 15th, where we saw at least 83 Bonaparte's Gulls. Now, I hate gulls as much as any other normal person, but the sight of those beautiful gulls was really something. Hannah called them "ice swallows." Curious about whether 83 Bonaparte's Gulls was an unusually high count, I checked eBird as soon as I got back to a computer. With the literal click of a mouse, I was able to determine that our 83 Bonaparte's Gulls at McIntosh were a new record for the site (deposing Bob Zilly's previous record, set less than a year ago), for the county (sorry, Chris Wood), and, in fact, for the entire state (Tony Leukering's old record of 78 has fallen). Needless to say, the eBird database doesn't include every single bird record from Colorado. (Although it's getting there...) So I checked "Bob & Bob" (Andrews and Righter's -Colorado Birds-, 1992), which gives an all-time high of 200 (!) on Oct. 6th, 1974, at Holbrook Reservoir, Otero County. Which brings me around to my real point in writing. At Saturday's quarterly meeting of the board of directors of Colorado Field Ornithologists (the folks who bring you COBirds, among other things), the persons in attendance learned that progress is being made toward the production of an "Online Bob & Bob." The devil is in the details, of course, and a lot remains to be worked out. But when this happens, it will be a groundbreaking, state-of-the-art resource. Check this out: It has now been as many years since the publication of the original Bob & Bob as the number of years between the publication of Bailey and Niedrach's -Birds of Colorado- and the original Bob & Bob. We're long overdue for a definitive state work, and it's headed our way. Can't wait! -------------------------------
Ted Floyd Editor, Birding ------------------------------- Check out Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine Please visit the website of the American Birding Association: http://www.aba.org _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
