[Bristol-Birds] eBirder of the Month: James Brooks

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:58:04 -0400
March 24, 2010 

















James Brooks, March 2010 eBirder of the month

 James Brooks of Jonesborough, Tennessee has been named the March 2010 eBirder 
of the month. for North America by the The Cornell University Laboratory of 
Ornithology and Audubon society founded program.  Congratulations, to James!

 The goal with the eBirder of the Month is to highlight how an individual is 
using eBird to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. One does not need 
to be a well-traveled or expert birder to be featured. Anyone who uses eBird is 
eligible, provided she or he understands the overarching goals of eBird and is 
committed to using the program regularly and properly. They are particularly 
interested in featuring people who are participating in the eBird Site Survey 
or County Birding initiatives. 

eBird believes the most compelling thing about James is the way he talks about 
eBird changing the way he goes birding. Having spent most of his birding career 
traveling and listing birds around the world, James recently found eBird. eBird 
caused him to look more closely at local birds (not just rarities!), and not 
only does he enjoy birding more, he also now submits complete checklists of 
birds from distinct locations and contributes an amazing amount of data to 
science--and eBird still maintains all his birding lists in the process! These 
kinds of observations are critically important for improving the ability to 
analyze eBird data, and its this kind of effort that really allows eBird to 
make the most out of the observations of birders.

Name: James Brooks


Residence: Jonesborough, TN

Years eBirding: 3

eBird Life List: 637

Number of eBird Locations: 198


Number of complete eBird checklists: 1175

From James:

"I've been birding for 30 years, but even before that if I saw a bird for the 
first time I would write down the city and date in my Golden Guide. I began 
keeping daily records in 1980, and shortly thereafter my friend Ignacy Fonberg 
created a DOS bird record program that we called Wren. It served me well for 
many years until the Clipper DB program was no longer available to do taxonomic 
updates. At that time I transferred 16,000 entries to Avisys. I've also written 
down all these entries to add to eBird when it becomes a truly international 
program.

"My focus has always been on listing, visiting over 40 countries in less than 
30 years. A few years ago, however, my Leica binoculars were stolen and I 
became so depressed that I did no birding whatsoever for more than a year. An 
income tax return allowed me to buy a new pair of Leicas, and at about that 
time I discovered eBird. I've gradually undergone a metamorphosis from a lister 
to an amateur scientist in the past 2.5 years, largely thanks to eBird. eBird 
began to fill a void in my acquisitive nature that was once fueled by listing 
and travel. At first I was using it just like the other listing programs, but 
last year I began to move from entering casual observations to submitting more 
complete checklists based on point counts, area counts and traveling counts.

"I currently write a birding column for The Johnson City Press in Tennessee, 
and since most of my readers are backyard bird watchers I've been recommending 
eBird to them. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual opportunity to get my 
readers involved, either by teasing neighboring cities about their low 
participation or by encouraging more local participation. I offer to submit 
data for readers who don't have computers, and this year I submitted data for a 
half dozen readers. Most of them submitted backyard lists for all four days. 
Some who have participated in past years have since gotten binoculars and field 
guides and are improving their skills. Tennessee made the top 10 in GBBC lists 
submitted for the first time, and Johnson City and Jonesborough were near the 
top of the state. I hope my efforts to get people involved with GBBC might  
help transition them over to year-round submission through eBird.

"I have recently set up a regular route for eBirding on Unaka Mountain near my 
home. My first run on Unaka Mountain had a few stops with zero birds reported, 
and I've since begun submitting checklists with zero data from all my other 
regular stops in Washington County when I find no birds. Going from reporting 
only unique species to submitting checklists with zero birds brings me full 
circle from casual lister to scientific contributor!

"My lawn-mowing business typically causes a hiatus in eBird reports once the 
grass comes up, but this year the county birding initiative should keep me 
going throughout the summer. My route on Unaka Mountain will have 15 stops, and 
I look forward to running it again the first day of spring and in each 
succeeding month, when I'll have more than crows to report! We have spectacular 
spring and summer birding in the mountains of east Tennessee.

"The backyard site will keep me counting Northern Cardinals and my other 
'regulars' throughout the year, but I look forward to some surprises--they 
always happen when you least expect it in the field. My five acres of woods and 
meadows have yielded over 120 species since I moved here in 1991, including a 
Black Rail! A migrating Kirtland's Warbler at my previous residence has to 
count as my best backyard bird ever. Great bird sightings can be found anywhere 
one is willing to put forth consistent effort. I'm planning on 3-4 reports a 
week from Bear Run, my backyard site. This February I submitted 57 checklists, 
better than two a day, from 43 locations, and reported 53 species. Normally 
this is my lowest reporting month of the year!"

The information above about James and what he wrote about his eBird activies 
was copied from
the eBird webiste at:  http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ebirder-of-the-month
[Bristol-Birds] eBirder of the Month: James Brooks

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