It always snows on my birthday, and that hasn’t come yet, but I thing SPRING may really be here!  I got pics of painted turtles basking themselves in Bradford, and the tree swallows are back. Now that everyone is out and scouting for new arrivals- and boy, are they coming fast and furious, I would like to register a plea to be concise about observations, particularly if you use eBird.  When anything unusual comes up- a rare bird, or a sighting out of its normal time of discovery, it is flagged, and a reviewer has to look into the observation to validate it. These people are volunteers. So sometimes, they’re flogged with ten or twenty records a day, particularly now and in the fall, when birds are migrating, and people (like me) are finally venturing back outside. So, if you see something unusual- 10 painted buntings at your feeder, or 200 common eiders in the cornfield, your observation is going to get flagged, first when you initially report it, and then later, if your description is not sufficient. You get this cut and paste eBIrd-o-gram that says there needs to be more information in order to validate the observation.  So, instead of describing the surrounding habitat, or saying something like: Oingo, Boingo, it’s really Spring!- you need to add a little detail.  Don’t take it personally- think of it as a way that all of these data that we are collecting can actually be used for scientific analyses that may even lead to habitat protection for the birds we’re reporting. I bring this up because my friend Ali pointed out to me that my nemonic for a white-throated sparrow : “poor joe joe missed his bus”- is not one she was familiar with.  Had I only included that for this bird that is a regular visitor in spring to our area, but for some reason is always at least two weeks earlier at the farm, it probably would have been flagged.  In fact, when I went on Cornell’s All About BIrds, the Oregon WTSP doesn’t say that at all, but the New York one does.  I also added other descriptors that ruled out fox sparrow, who has a similar song, but whose markings are not even vaguely comparable.   Her retort was that his second stanza in the song should be “now he’s gonna hafta walk”  Perfect.  Happy spring everyone.  Jenn

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]
To unsubscribe:  E-mail this command to [log in to unmask]  UNSUBSCRIBE UV-Birders
To change your e-mail address:  E-mail this command from your old address to: [log in to unmask]  CHANGE UV-Birders [new e-mail address]

Web based archives and subscription management are available at:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html