[wisb] Wisconsin Birdlife eBird Project--Data entry volunteers wanted

From: Aaron Stutz <agstutz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:37:05 -0500
Greetings,
Sam Robbins' /Wisconsin Birdlife/, published in 1991, is/the/ book when 
it comes to the status, habitat, migration, breeding and wintering 
presence of Wisconsin's Birds.  I can recall Sam commenting in the late 
90's, when he was in his mid to late 70's,  that someone (other than 
him) should eventually update /Wisconsin Birdlife/.  For those of you 
that came to the Wisconsin scene after Sam passed you can read an 
excellent obituary by Roy Lukes at 
http://www.doorbell.net/lukes/a022700.htm.  Sam was and still is a 
Wisconsin birding institution.  When I came to the Madison birding scene 
in the late 90's Sam was everywhere--compiling the CBC, writing articles 
for the /Passenger Pigeon/ and /Bird Haunts, /and frequently commenting 
on the Wisbirdn email list.  One of my favorite birding memories was a 
trip along Lake Michigan in February of 1999 with Sam and Peter 
Bridge--I was a novice birder and picked up numerous lifers.  We 
targeted gulls and Sam showed me my lifer Iceland, Glaucous and Great 
Black-backed Gulls.  I remember being the first in the group to spot a 
Harlequin Duck at Sheboygan.  Sam was kind and encouraging--he 
complemented me on my quick find.

While not a true update to /Wisconsin Birdlife/, eBird complements Sam's 
work in many ways.  It's popularity took off in the late 2000's and the 
various "Explore Data" features document the same aspects of bird 
distribution that Sam captured with his excellent prose in the species 
accounts of /Wisconsin Birdlife/.
_
How can you help unite these two works of Wisconsin Bird distribution?_

The Wisconsin eBird Team would like to unite/Wisconsin Birdlife/ and 
eBird with the help of some volunteers.  We are looking for 20-40 
volunteers to enter all eBird appropriate records from the species 
accounts in /Wisconsin Birdlife /(volunteers will get more detailed 
instructions).  Many of you own a copy of /Wisconsin Birdlife/, but you 
can volunteer even if you do not own a copy because 90+ percent of the 
book is available for FREE from Google Books at 
http://books.google.com/books/about/Wisconsin_Birdlife.html?id=H6f8ux0WHTIC.  
Volunteers need to be comfortable working with a Microsoft Excel 
Spreadsheet and need a  decent knowledge of seasonal bird distribution 
in Wisconsin.

_How do I volunteer?_

Contact me (Aaron Stutz) at agstutz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  I will assign you a 
"packet" of 10 species to start (you can always request to do more).  
Volunteers will get a set of instructions and a spreadsheet for data 
entry.  I've entered 20 species and it took me about 4 hours (this was 
when my fingers were a bit slow due to my illness), so expect 10 species 
to take 1.5-2 hours if you are comfortable with Excel.  Note I will be 
without internet access for a few days so there may be a delay in 
getting volunteers the files.

Thank you for helping with this project!!

Aaron Stutz and the rest of the Wisconsin eBird Team



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[wisb] Wisconsin Birdlife eBird Project--Data entry volunteers wanted

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