Counting Crows . . . and Jays and Chickadees [Fun & Games]

The annual Great Backyard Bird Count is on, let the games begin! Every day there are thousands of people watching birds across North America. Over the next four days (Friday, February 12^th through 15^th) there will be thousands of people watching and counting birds across North America, some for the first time, all to create a snapshot of where the birds are spending their winter. It's simple: observe birds; track a few necessary details (like when, where, and who); and upload your list on the easy-to-use web site.

Well, check out this video, it's worth a thousand-word blog post all on its own. You'll learn the whats, wherefores, and how tos. But also explore the web site to learn about birds, to see how your submissions are used by scientists, to see photos from past counts, and especially to get ideas on how to involve beginning birders and kids - from past experience I can tell you, it's great for kids!

The GBBC is a great excuse, if you need one,
to get your kids involved with nature.

Granted, watching birds is the best part. But it's a real trip to watch the map as it regularly updates throughout the weekend in near-real time with the most recent submissions, to track how many checklists come in from your town, and to see what birds are being seen where.

So, if nothing else, try and get out and collect a few checklists. Even better, attend a bird walk or workshop at a local nature center, or just get a few others out with you and introduce them to nature and citizen science. I'll be covering where I can in my county, will you do the same?

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Healthy Competition

eBird has released a new "data out" tool, the eBird Top 100. eBird users can now compare their species list and/or their total checklist submissions with other eBirders.

I'm not much into actively comparing life lists -- they really are measuring who has the opportunity to travel and the luxury to bird exotic places - but this is pretty cool. You can see how your life list (according to eBird) compares across the ABA area, in a particular country, a specific state/province, and so on. You can see how you rank in specific years, or all time.

More meaningful are how many checklists you've recorded. I suspect these indicate how often you collect valuable information that reaches beyond "the game" of birding.

That said, privately I do look. And I'm pleased to see I'm one of the Top 100 eBirders both for checklists entered (41) and species seen (91). I have no doubt I'll be dropping soon, as more and more prolific birders join eBird, as more and more people upload historical checklists, and as those more competitive than me get out and bird more.

My ego may take a hit, but I'll be taking one for the birds, and that's all right.

Check out the functionality on the eBird site.

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Garlic Mustard Survey

There are two types of people, so goes the saying. Those that divide people into two types . . . .

Seriously, if you're among those that can resist the urge to pull up Garlic Mustard this citizen science project may be for you. Personally, I don't think I could leave the plant alone long enough to collect the data they want. We've been stalwartly defending our property from its relentless assault for a couple of years and we're not about to give up now.

That said, the folks at the Global Invasions Research Coordination Network launched a Global Garlic Mustard Field Survey with the goal to "form a broad network of scientists, students and environmentalists from across Europe and North America to fill an important gap in data on native and introduced plant populations."

From their introduction,

It is widely believed that invasive species are larger, reproduce more and reach higher densities compared to their native ancestors. However, there are surprisingly few hard data to support this claim, even for some of the most well?known invaders. One of the most problematic invaders in North America is garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), yet without good field data, important questions remain unanswered. Does garlic mustard really grow larger and reproduce better in North American populations than in native European populations? How much variation in performance is there among populations within Europe and North America? Answers to questions like these will ultimately lead to better understanding and management of invasive species.

A worthwhile cause which could yield some fascinating results - but not at the expense of our little plot of land.

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North American Birds and eBird

One more reason to submit your observations to eBird: your archived sightings help write the pages of North American Birds.



If you're asking, "What's North American Birds?" prepared to be dazzled. NAB is a quarterly journal published by the American Birding Association. It focuses on the distribution and abundance of birds -- all birds - across North America, region-by-region, season-by-season. It's much more than a simple list of rare birds that were found. Instead, it's all noteworthy sightings put in context with what else is going on around the continent, or in a certain region over time. You'll find stories about the arrival and departure dates of your backyard birds (are they shifting?), reports of lingering or wintering migrants, encounters with unexpected large flock sizes, explorations of expanding or contracting range distributions. Of course, details about rare birds are included, especially how their presence might fit into a larger picture.


To discern interesting patterns and trends, along with where the rarities appeared, the regional editors need data. In the past they received index cards from a small network of observers, those who took it upon themselves to record and submit their unusual sightings. They attended local birding club meetings and trolled listserves.

And now they have a new weapon: they can download and peruse all of the eBird submissions from their area.

So while you are set up to track your observations, you're contributing pieces to the puzzle of bird distribution and abundance across North America. So, take a few minutes each day to contribute to eBird - it's quick, simple, and you'll be helping document trends in North American avifauna.

Read more on the eBird web site, and check out the North American Birds archive for a sample of how important your sightings are.

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North American Bird Phenology Program

This just in, from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center:

After much anticipation, we are excited to announce the launch of The North American Bird Phenology Program (BPP) online data entry system! Through this new online program, volunteers from around the world can register on the website and begin transcribing historical bird arrival records into our online database which were originally scanned in the BPP office.

What is the BPP?
The BPP is working to understand the scale of global climate change and how it is affecting birds across North America. This is the oldest and longest running bird monitoring program in the country, currently housing six million records dating back to the early 1880's. The program, started in 1880 by Wells W. Cooke, collected bird observations by over 3,000 citizen scientists and came to an end in 1970, until we revived the program during the last year. The records document bird migration arrival and departure dates from around North America; an unparalleled and untapped resource, but one in which we need your help to modernize.

How can you get involved?
The BPP relies solely on volunteers to scan images of the migration cards and transcribe them into our database. We accept participants from all ages and backgrounds. AND you can participate from the comfort of your own home! We need your help!

Online participants must register online. There you can learn more about the transcription process and register to become a transcriber. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email which will then take you through a 15 minute training video and back to the website to begin transcription.

Also, If you are in the Baltimore-Washington area and would like to help
the crew of volunteers in the BPP office to help with scanning and working with the historic files we welcome you to come and take part in this program. We even have Saturday hours!

Individuals, families, and small groups are welcome to help so if you are interested in helping discover how spring and fall arrival times of birds have changed since the 1880's, and I hope you are, please visit us on the web or call (301) 487-5745.

Birders are well aware of the stories being told from long-running projects like the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Christmas Bird Count, who knows what tales are documented in these cards. It's a good bet there are a myriad of interesting trends buried here that will come to light once everything is digitized, please volunteer if you can!

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