Andrew et al., I am by no means the expert here, and hopefully Andrew Farnsworth will chime in with any comments or suggestions, but basically all I do is listen in real time and count all the birds I can hear and identify. I don’t have a recording set-up at present. I’m fairly confident with many of the identifications but not with others — I use a lot of warbler sp. and sparrow sp. I feel I can usually estimate number of individual birds passing pretty easily based on the timing and position of the calling birds in the sky — where I am there are no lights and the birds pass over in a consistent direction, with most individuals calling only once or twice within my range of hearing. During heavy flights or dense pulses of calling activity, I just do my best to keep track of individuals, and sometimes will estimate the ratio of species identified during a given period and apply that to the number I’m estimating — functionally this isn’t any different from how I would estimate large flocks of ducks or shorebirds or migrating hawks. I’m sure there’s a certain amount of error, but not greater than for most other kinds of birding.
Because I use BirdLog, I can easily tally the numbers as I go, but that also means I need to remember to change the protocol to NFC after the checklist is entered. (I believe BirdLog will eventually be able to record the NFC protocol, but I don’t know the timing on that). Hope this is helpful, KEN Kenneth V. Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology Office: 607-254-2412 cell: 607-342-4594 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> On Sep 22, 2014, at 9:01 PM, Andrew Albright <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Ken (and Chris*), I have a different interpretation of the ebird NFC rules/guideliness than the Montgomery county (Pennsylvania) ebird compiler for listening live (cc'd here). http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/1010492. It might be easier to just see an example of how you are logging your night flight calls into ebird because I think we are doing approximately the same activity - listening live and recording nfc that we can ID? I checked "Recent Sightings" from Thompkins Co, NY and the only one example in that I could find doesn't seem to fit guidelines Other questions/improvement suggestings 1) I brought up the question before about the species that you could conclusively identify as being separable, either partially or entirably. Even if it were not 100% agreed upon, I think it would be good if there were a standard that was used for nfc data entry, e.g. only those fields appear. This would make data entry more standard, easier and provide a good starting point for a more detailed discussion. 2) It would be nice to provide a "cliff note" version of the instructions. The weblink has quite a bit of information which could be broken down into background information and actionable instructions. 3) It would be good to push to have the smartphone app upgraded to enable more functionality that includes easy logging of the NFC protocol. Sincerely, Andrew Albright *Chris - If I recall, sometimes you post here that you listen live and sometimes you review remote recordings? On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 12:23 AM, Kenneth V. Rosenberg <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Just had about 200 thrushes (mostly Swainsons but also many Gray-cheeked and Wood Thrush) over my house in Northeast Ithaca in a 45 min count - also 12 Green Herons and an Am Bittern Ken Sent from my iPhone On Sep 18, 2014, at 9:41 PM, "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Just a heads-up about a potential push of birds into this area overnight tonight... Begin forwarded message: From: "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [nfc-l] Thursday: Night Flight in Northeast Date: September 18, 2014 at 9:38:18 PM EDT To: NFC-L <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Reply-To: "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> There is currently a fairly heavy liftoff going on in the Northeast and surrounding regions. The high pressure system situated North of Lake Ontario could make for a good push of birds down into the Northeast overnight tonight. If you can, keep your ears skyward! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418<tel:607-254-2418> M: 607-351-5740<tel:607-351-5740> F: 607-254-1132<tel:607-254-1132> http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
