Hi Cayugabirders, Another rainy night with south winds this evening—more chances for some grounded waterbirds! Tomorrow morning could be a good chance to get out to your local piece of water and see what might have dropped in. You never know until you look!
However, once the weather clears up, perhaps on the warm morning that this Saturday should feature, there is a perfect opportunity to go Avicaching (ebird.org/content/ebird/avicaching/<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/avicaching/>)! In the first week of Avicaching, 14 people participated and entered 227 eBird checklists—more than 40% of all of the eBirding in Schuyler, Tompkins, and Cortland counties this past week! Very exciting, and a really great step towards understanding the effects of roadside bias in bird observation data. A huge thanks to all who took part, and we hope to see some more names up there this week! If you haven’t given it a try yet, why not hike a trail and see what birds you can find? It is a good excuse to explore, and only a few minutes can make a big difference. Sightings in the first week’s listing endeavors included numerous reports of Rusty Blackbird, Fox Sparrow, Red-shouldered Hawk, Barred Owl, American Woodcock, in addition to pioneering spring migrants like Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Hermit Thrush. You can see the Avicaching scores for participants here, as well as the point values for each location this week: http://ebird.org/ebird/avicache/home. These scores will be updated live as new lists get added, and the point values for each location will be updated weekly, on Wednesdays, and be valid from Thursday through the Wednesday of the next week. The “hotter” the color of the markers on the map, the more points you can earn. With the most valuable locations being worth 15 Avicaching points, you can easily close the gap with the current top Avicachers! I know that I’ll be out on Saturday morning, and hope to see your sightings joining the rest of the Avicaching team! Best, Ian -- Ian Davies eBird Project Coordinator Ithaca, NY i...@cornell.edu<mailto:i...@cornell.edu> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/uropsalis/ -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
