[orebird] Re: heads up on Oregon 2020 hotspots
- From: "W. Douglas Robinson" <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: orebird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 06:15:07 -0700
Hi Matt
Good questions, and sorry for forgetting to address Vjera's question. The basic
plan you state is fine. If you use personal locations, we will definitely
extract them and put them in the hotspot square dataset during analyses. So
it's fine to do it that way. In some ways it is even better because it cuts a
step later in data analysis (we don't have to look in the comments for the GPS
location). But there is a cost.
As you mentioned, the data are not visible in the Hotspot Explorer unless they
are entered into eBird under the Oregon 2020--Hotspot Square Name with the name
exactly right (if you choose this from the pull down menus in eBird or BirdLog,
it should be seamless). Inclusion there does not matter to many folks, because
they don't yet use the Hotspot Explorer or care if their name and sightings are
publicly displayed on the eBird page. However, it also means that our 2020
folks cannot see if a Hotspot Square has been visited either, unless we
download the data from eBird and sort through it all. That's a big process.
Probably what we need pretty soon is to see if we can find folks who would
agree to be county coordinators. Those folks could keep tabs on what squares
have been visited, who has been helping, whether there was interest in having
the 2020 crew could come down for a helpful workshop, letting us know if some
squares are totally inaccessible, etc. If we had county coordinators keeping an
eye on square coverage a couple times per year, we would at least know which
squares had data even if they were not visible in the Hotspot Explorer, and
without going a through a big data extraction and mapping exercise. I know that
there are lots of data from quite a number of hotspot squares that are from
personal locations, especially in the Willamette Valley, so finding ways to
keep tabs on square "completion" is an important issue.
Regarding Vjera's concern about possible overlap, I'd say that it would be nice
to keep those data separate (so add observations seen outside of the existing
EWEB hotspot but still inside the square as another checklist for the Hotspot
Square), but I understand the extra workload is unappealing. So, in the end,
there will be a small percentage of squares that overlap existing hotspots and
it's ok to just be sure the data get into eBird somehow. It will be our 2020
crew's job to sort through which data get used in what way. We don't want this
to be an extra burden on folks, too much anyway...
This also relates to Dawn's concern about the confusion about the Lincoln City
issue. One of the challenges I see with the regular Hotspots and their use in
eBird is that the limits of the areas of typical Hotspots are not defined
clearly for users. For example, there is a Finely refuge Hotspot, which is a
huge area. No telling exactly where in the refuge people have birded when they
submit under that hotspot. So, long story short is that it is our 2020 crew's
job to 1) help find ways to educate folks about what the Oregon 2020--hotspots
mean, and 2) be careful about how we interpret and use the data loaded into any
and all of the hotspots. We have a long series of steps we will use to make the
final selections, but it is involved and will take time.
So, in summary, load in data in whatever way is convenient for you, help folks
you know understand that Oregon 2020--hotspots are 1 square mile in area, and
let us know which squares have been covered and which have not.
All the best!
Doug
On May 27, 2014, at 9:32 PM, Matthew G Hunter wrote:
> Hi Doug,
> I must have missed the answer to this question. Would you mind cutting and
> pasting the answer again, or letting me know where to find the info.
> I have read everything I can find on the Oregon 2020 website and OBOL and
> don't find a direct answer, but you can ask my wife, most everything I look
> for is hidden directly under my nose. ha ha ... anyway, ...
>
> And to ask the question my own way, .... To contribute data to a hotspot
> square, do we have to select that hotspot identifier for the square and input
> data there (and your instructions say to include lat/long in the checklist
> comments for stationary surveys). It seems to me (since I've taken a whole 5
> minutes to think about this) that it would be simpler if---for stationary
> counts---we can just plot our actual locations for the stationary counts, and
> whenever you want you can just "scoop them up" with some standard GIS
> programming/functions. Yes, this method would mean that my species would not
> be visible in eBird's hotspot explorer (unless someone did some additional
> programming on the eBird end), but that doesn't matter to me personally. I
> personally would prefer to plot my point exactly where my point was. Will you
> scoop up any checklists from within the square at the point you do your
> analysis for the square? This would also solve Vjera's question above.
>
> Thanks for your reply, and sorry if I missed the explanation of this
> somewhere...
>
> Matt
>
>
> On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 3:54 PM, Vjera Thompson <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> Doug,
>
> I live near the Anna's Hummingbird square in Eugene. There is a hotspot
> inside the square (EWEB wetlands). How will situations like this be handled?
> Should I double-post if I'm birding the EWEB wetlands? Or only use the
> Anna's Hummingbird spot outside of the EWEB location?
>
> Vjera
> On Monday, April 21, 2014 3:52 PM, W. Douglas Robinson
> <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi gang,
>
> Just a heads-up that there will be a bunch of new Oregon hotspots added to
> the state in the next few days. We've been working with eBird and Brian
> Sullivan to get a grid-like sampling scheme established for Oregon 2020.
> Through lots of discussions and planning we realized that to meet the main
> goal of 2020, to establish benchmark measurements of Oregon bird
> distributions and abundances, we need more structure to how we sample birds
> across the state. This resulted in a type of sampling grid that is stratified
> across townships, but preserves an element of randomization (a necessary
> assumption of statistical approaches that will let us estimate statewide
> population sizes). The sites, what we call hotspot squares, are one mile
> square sections selected randomly from each 36-square mile township in the
> state. That totals about 2800 of these sample sites.
>
> You can see the sites here:
>
> http://tools.oregonexplorer.info/oe_map_viewer_2_0/Viewer.html?Viewer=Oregon2020
>
> We will be announcing all these updates with more explanation of why we
> picked areas of this size, etc, on the 2020 web page, OBOL and the upcoming
> eBird Northwest portal very soon, especially since breeding season is upon us.
>
> All of the hotspot squares are named "Oregon 2020--hotspot square name". So,
> all begin with Oregon 2020--
>
> They have unique names, associated with a geographical feature, road, etc,
> within each one-square mile hotspot square. However, a subset of about 300 of
> these (11% of the total) are named after birds; e.g., Oregon 2020--Evening
> Grosbeak. These are called the Hot 300 and we will be developing some
> challenges associated with counting birds in as many of the Hot 300 as
> possible. We aim to have prizes from sponsors for those who contribute the
> most from the Hot 300, all the hotspot squares in each county, and all the
> hotspot squares statewide. It should be really fun.
>
> Anyway, this email is just to alert you that this is happening, that you will
> be able to use the Explorer Tools on eBird to see who has visited each
> hotspot square and what they saw, and to easily locate each hotspot square if
> you use BirdLog to enter data. All the names will appear in the lists of
> hotspots nearby.
>
> Let me know if you have questions.
>
> All the best,
> Doug
>
>
>
>
>
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