I tried to use ebird years ago (circa 2004) and it was horrible. I gave up.
I heard now it's better so I went back late last year. After farting around on it for about half an hour, I still think it sucks. I use computers everyday for work and have done so since 1995 (back in the day of Windows 3.1) but I still can't figure out how to pull up anything I'd consider useful from ebird. Maybe it's my left-handed but logical brain but I must need to be led by the hand through the wonderland that is ebird 'cuz I ain't finding it on my own. Reliability is a whole 'nother factor - If I have no clue who a birder is, or what their ID skill level is, I ain't going chasing after their mis-identification. Does ebird have any sort of verification process for the validity of their "scientific database" ??? There, I said it. I already get good info from the MOUMN.org website and mostly reliable info from the MOU and MNBird list servs. And oddly, sometimes it's just fun to try your luck on your own. I know I must be a luddite, as my cell phone is still dumb and I'm not a twit (don't tweet). My Face is not in a book that's not made of paper either and I email far more than I text (OMG, LOL). But apparently society marches on to it's cyber drummer with me in it's virtual dust. -- Sincerely, Jim Ryan Saint Paul's Westside ---- One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken. -* Leo Tolstoy* A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty. - *Lucius Annaeus Seneca* ---- On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 10:19 AM, Chris Fagyal <cfag...@avianphotos.org>wrote: > I'd actually be inclined to believe most Mou members don't use ebird. For > example, I haven't lived in Minnesota since Oct of 2009, but I'm still > number three for lifetime ebird list in Minnesota with only 311. If one > looks at the moumn listing page there are well over 150 people on the 300 > club. It pains me to see so many people not utilizing such an awesome > resource. It makes things easier for the listers (especially county > listers) and it helps to grow the understanding of Minnesota's birds. With > the various cool new iOS and android apps, submitting checklists can even > be done in the field while birding! > > Ebird provides excellent tools for looking at distribution bar graphs by > state, county or even location so one can see which birds are most likely > at a given time of year. A great tool for looking at species arrivals > during migration to know what is expected to be showing up. I use them all > the time to try to understand arrival dates in Kansas as I continue to > learn here in my new home. > > It's also very easy to import sightings from things like avisys or birders > diary. If anyone would like help doing so I'd gladly offer some > assistance. It only took me a few days to take sightings from five > countries and ten years worth of data when I did so last year when Ebird > went global. I haven't even used my listing software since because ebird > does what I want so well. > > > Cheers, > Chris Fagyal > > > > > Jonathon Jongsma <jonat...@quotidian.org> wrote: > > >On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 09:17 -0500, linda whyte wrote: > >> too. Finally, I suspect that many MOU folks are e-bird users and figure > >> that's all they need do to share. > > > >This is certainly possible (I admit that I feel this way sometimes), but > >it doesn't really explain the difference between Wisconsin and Minnesota > >mailing lists. Wisconsin birders submit *far* more ebird reports than > >Minnesota birders do, and yet apparently their mailing list is also more > >active. > > > >And since I'm writing anyway, I saw a Vesper Sparrow and 2 Yellow-rumped > >Warblers at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis this morning. > > > >Jonathon > > > >---- > >Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > >Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
