By the way . . . particularly any visiting birder should expect queries from
local eBird reviewers. It is not an insult to be questioned about your
sightings, especially if you are in unfamiliar territory.
Relative to some of the discussion in a recent thread about eBird and
reliability of data sets . . . there are a number of reports in *every* data
set that represent errors. The trick is to try your best as a compiler or
reviewer to minimize these. It is both good and bad that eBird has evolved into
today's "trusted source" for bird data. There is certainly as much good
information in it as any single data source, but there are also non-negligible
number of reports that are false (some that have been validated by reviewers,
e.g. Mark Monroe's examples of Broad-winged Hawks a few weeks ago).
Some of this is impossible to weed out like it is in any data set. But the
presence of errors is one reason why one should *never* utilize records in a
data source as "precedent" and validation for the presence of birds. For
example, this would be true for validation of early April reports of Miss. Kite
in KY based on previous "eBird reports." In my opinion, both early April 2022
Miss. Kite reports in eBird in KY should have been documented with photographs
to be validated. That is not a knock on either observer; I would have expected
a reviewer to require that of *me* or *any* other birder reporting one two
weeks earlier than any previous KY spring record.
From 50 years of birding, I've seen most everything in terms of early birds,
late birds, high numbers, Asian vagrants . . . you name it. And I also know
things are changing due to shift in climate . . . but as Patti Bell pointed out
in a post about birding in Costa Rica recently, 99.9% of Miss. Kites were
heading north in Central America during the first two weeks of April. So
particularly with such outliers, it is no crime to exclude reports with less
than unequivocal documentation from a data set that is going to sit there in
perpetuity long after all of us are gone.
bpb, Louisvlle
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Apr 21, 2022 5:46 PM
To: Carol Besse
Cc: michael autin , Asher Higgins , Sunil Thirkannad , BirdKY Listserve
Subject: [birdky] Re: Phenomenal Birder !
Congrats to him! That appears to be the first record of grasshopper sparrow at
Hays / Garvin:-) He has a Merlin and a Vesper there too. What a day!
I live 2.5 miles from Caperton Swamp and have 107 species there. Mr. Huestis
managed 8 that I have never seen over the last 7 years. I like to assume
positive intent, so I find these cases a very interesting puzzle. I really
would like to know what on earth is going on with this person!
Greg Walker
Louisville
On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 4:58 PM Carol Besse wrote:
His eBird now says 2 hrs 20 min at Caperton. And now he’s found a Grasshopper
Sparrow at Garvin Brown!
Carol Besse
Louisville
{o,o}
/( _ )
" "
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 21, 2022, at 3:25 PM, michael autin wrote:
Right place, right time, I guess. I haven't seen 40 species in 8 minutes
probably anywhere in my life, including southeast Asia.
Michael Autin
On Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 3:03 PM Asher Higgins wrote:
I am impressed by your very gentle exposé of this checklist.
Asher Higgins
Casey Co. KY
On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 19:58 Sunil Thirkannad wrote:
Wow...Phenomenal....!!!
That's all I can say about a list posted today from Caperton Swamp by Edward
Huestis of Catonsville, Maryland.
I spent a good 1 hour there yesterday and only ended up with 18 species.
Edward Huestis spent 8 minutes at Caperton and listed 38 species including
American Black Duck, great horned owl, barred owl, yellow throated vireo and 8
types of warblers including a worm eating warbler.
I have attached both Edward's and my list below for your reference.
Truly...I wish I had that kind of luck ...or birding skills !!
Sunil
Jeff Co.
My meagre offering: https://ebird.org/checklist/S107549189
Edward's list: eBird Checklist - 21 Apr 2022 - Caperton Swamp Park - 38 species
(https://ebird.org/checklist/S107610229)
eBird Checklist - 21 Apr 2022 - Caperton Swamp Park - 38 speciesSubmitted by
Edward Huestis.
--
Asher Higgins
