Hello birders-

I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for contributing to Vermont eBird 
last year. We entered a grand total of 5,768 checklists comprising 287 species and over 322,000 birds! 

For those of you that have been reluctant to try eBird or found it clunky and 
difficult several years ago and never came back, I wanted to point out several 
significant upgrades to eBird(http://ebird.org/content/vt/) and urge you to give it another try.


The entire user interface has been reworked in the past few years and the process has gotten
much more streamlined. We have put a lot of effort into streamlining the
program so that it runs faster. And again, it gives your sightings so much
more import by using them to generate the maps and graphs you see in the
"View and Explore data" tab, informing scientific efforts to understand and
record changes in the distribution and population of birds, and providing a
permanent archive for sightings that might otherwise fade into the internet
ether or collect dust in your notebooks. The data are shared with North
American Birds editors and state journal editors at the end of each season
and are persistently backed up on multiple servers.

Below are recent improvements to the site, and again, there are more to
come!

1) Life list--Finally, at long last, we have solved one of the long-term
bugs with the program. eBird no longer counts non-species such as "American
Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)" or "scoter sp." toward your personal lists.
We want to allow eBirders to report these birds, but due to a listing glitch
these were being counted in species totals up until last week. Read more at
the eBird homepage or
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/2007listingchanges.html.

2) Bulk upload--If you have bird sighting data stored in a spreadsheet,
database (e.g., Access), or in a listing program that can be exported to a
CSV file, an Excel file, or some compatible format, it is now possible to
upload these directly to your eBird account. Detailed instructions can be
accessed here http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/Bulk_Upload.html or via
the top story on the eBird homepage. The instructions are lengthy, but the
process is really not that difficult. Simply follow the file format
described for "Checklist format" or "Record format". There are also some
tricks for getting text into an excel format, in case anyone stores bird
sightings in a MS Word document or something similar. Please feel free to
contact me directly for any help with this process.

3) Taxonomy--We have officially shared our "eBird taxonomy". This bird list
follows the AOU and South American Classification Committee nomenclature and
phylogeny, and includes every species, field identifiable subspecies,
hybrid, or "spuh" (e.g., scoter sp., Common/Hoary Redpoll) that one could
expect to encounter north of Colombia. It also includes all South American
species (not all subspecies Groups...yet) and a hodgepodge of other world
species, including all species known to have occurred as escapees in North
America. This list is sorted in taxonomic order and may come in handy for
anyone dealing with bird lists, especially lists that include taxa other
than species. Download the taxonomy in several formats here
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/2007listingchanges.html. (And let me
know if you spot any errors!)

4) eBird talks--A list of eBird appearances is available through the story
on the eBird homepage or here
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/eBirdroad.html. Please let us know if
you know of other eBird talks that we can add to this or if you'd like to
try to schedule a similar talk.

We are actively developing the site currently and plan to have a few more
significant upgrades coming out in the next few months. I'll keep the list
apprised as developments come along.

Until then, good eBirding! And as always, I am happy to answer any
eBird-related questions.

Kent

-- 
Kent McFarland
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
PO Box 420 • Norwich, VT 05055
802.649.1431
http://www.vtecostudies.org/

****************************************************************
To post messages, send e-mail to:  [log in to unmask]
Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages.
To contact the list owner:  [log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Web based archives and subscription management are available at:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html
****************************************************************