Hi Andrew: Thanks to you and your team for reviewing this subject. It is a very important and timely to develop this protocol, and your consideration of this matter is much appreciated. I have read the protocol a couple of times and look forward to begin entering my remote data in eBird. I do have one question and a comment concerning the definition of night (which I assume applies to both live and remote listening).
The protocol states: “Counts should be conducted only at night, which is defined as when the sun is more than 12 degrees below the horizon (the period between astronomical dusk and astronomical dawn).” It is quite possible that I may be confused on this topic, but my understanding is that astronomical dusk is when the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon. I also wonder why you use astronomical dusk and dawn rather than civil dusk/dawn. I would be interested in hearing the reasoning for this. It seems to me that it introduces much latitudinal bias into the data set. For example, if the peak of the spring Black-throated Green Warbler migration in Mobile, Alabama is in the third week of April, there are about 8 hours of “night” according to the definition in the protocol. On the other hand, during the peak of this warbler’s spring migration where I live in Nova Scotia, there are only 4 hours and twenty minutes of “night” (third week of May) under the protocol. Again, I admit that I may not be understanding your intention correctly. Based on nearly 18,000 night flight calls recorded in my location last fall, a quick estimate would be the loss of somewhere between 10-20% of them by restricting the report to the protocol’s definition of night. On some nights, the loss would be around 40%. The sometimes spectacular thrush descents that take place just before civil sunrise would also not be reportable. I would suggest that civil dusk/dawn gives a more complete set of data, albeit with a need to have a way to deal with some overlap with crepuscular land-based bird activity. Thanks for your consideration of this issue. John From: bounce-75445767-28417...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-75445767-28417...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Andrew Farnsworth Sent: March 1, 2013 11:30 To: nf...@list.cornell.edu Cc: Matthew Sarver; Magnus Robb; W. Douglas Robinson; Laurent Fournier; Rob Fergus Subject: [nfc-l] NFC protocol redux Hi all, Thank you, Laurent, Matt, Doug, Rob, and Magnus, for bringing up good questions and opportunities for discussion! The eBird (Marshall Iliff, Brian Sullivan, Chris Wood) and BirdCast (yours truly) teams reviewed this situation, your questions, and your comments, and we came up with some changes to the NFC Protocol. We revised the NFC protocol, and you can see it here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/nfc-count-protocol. Please take time to read this protocol, as it has some important points you need to know when submitting observations. These changes are live, so you can begin entering data as you see fit. I think, and we hope, that the protocol description will clarify questions and comments raised in previous emails. Of course, if there are more discussions to be had or comments, please feel free to address them to me privately or to the group, if appropriate. Let me highlight a few important points: 1. Data from remote listening stations (e.g. that record while you sleep and that you review later, etc) are now accepted. If you would like to do this, you must create a SEPARATE account using the same email for your primary account and label the account in a very specific way (i.e. your name NFC Station). Please read the protocol for details. 2. We ask for as much relevant metadata for NFC protocol submissions as you can possibly provide. We provided a few examples in the protocol documentation. 3. Please continue to mark "N" to the "Are you reporting all species?" question, for now. 4. We hope to add a way for listers to mark species as "do not count on lists" in the future, and also to opt out of Top100, etc. This requires substantial development and, so, will take some time . . . Again, please feel free to contact me to discuss this, or, if relevant to the NFC group as a whole, address the community. Now . . . go out and listen, start up your gear, and program your stations . . . then enter all your observations into eBird! Good birding . . . at night, Andrew -- NFC-L List Info: <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> The Mail Archive <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> Surfbirds <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> BirdingOnThe.Net Please submit your observations to <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> 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/nfc-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
