[obol] Re: Morrow County Blitz initial results
- From: David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx>
- To: Doug Robinson <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx>, OBOL Oregon Birders Online <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 06:44:04 +0000
Earlier today Paul Sullivan wrote:
Doug,
Of course, I've put considerable effort into birding Morrow County in the
process of building my personal county list. I lived in Pendleton a couple
years, which facilitated visiting. I gave focused effort to hexagons and
squares in the county during the Breeding Bird Atals project.
I also had the help of Craig Corder in searching for special target birds.
One of the species I never found was the Yellow-breasted Chat, in spite of
visiting a site where Craig once found that species. This was not an
easy-to-find species in Morrow County.
Now you speak of them like they were fairly easy to find. I look forward
to seeing your results.
Paul et al.,
I think it's important to note that the assemblage of birding talent combing
Morrow County this past weekend surely surpasses any single day/weekend effort
ever made in this county and likely rivals the total number of observer days
applied to this county in some years. The combined observer effort involved a
total of 16 observers (Doug Robinson and Jay Withgott's wife Susan Masta are
not listed in Doug's post). Nearly every one of these observers spent two full
days in the field and some us birded the county for part of Friday and/or
Monday as well. At the very least, about 35 observer days of effort were
applied to Morrow County between Friday and Monday (30 May-2 June). Most of the
participants were very experienced. Further, the random process for selecting
hotspot squares results in folks visiting areas and habitats (some on private
and otherwise inaccessible parcels) that rarely if ever get covered by birders
making conventional visits to the county. The 35+ observer days in a single
long weekend probably exceeds the number of individual observer days that have
been applied to this county in any month or even multiple month stretch, hence
the results that we collectively produced are not necessarily easily compared
to the results produced by individual birders making occasional visits to the
most accessible and outwardly appealing habitats.
The goal of this project is to provide a more accurate benchmark of current
bird distribution in Oregon. Doing this right takes a concerted effort and it
cannot be done by simply collecting 'data' from conventional birding
activities. Much like the Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas project did back in the
late 1990's, I think we can count on the Oregon 2020 effort to turn up some
interesting finds and teach us some things that we didn't know before.
Conventional birding is generally done in a manner that is limited in scope and
biased by the way birders choose where and where not to bird. The protocols for
this project are designed to eliminate some of this bias and to ensure that
data gets collected from all habitats types, even from massive expanses that
are nothing but hundreds of acres of plowed, bare ground (often the case in
Morrow County). On Sunday, Shawneen, Jim Danzenbaker and I covered some squares
in some of the most agriculturally impacted sections of the county. We made
many stops and surveyed habitats that the three of us would normally drive by
on our way to juicier looking sites. Additionally, the project coordinators
endeavor to gain access to parcels of land that
birders cannot typically explore (i.e. the tree farm and the naval
bombing range).
This was the second county-wide blitz that Shawneen and I have participated in
and we plan to be in Baker County in three weeks for the next blitz. There is
much to be learned for even the most experienced Oregon birders. I added
significantly to my knowledge about the breeding birds in Morrow County and
visited a whole slate of sites that I had not birded previously. If you have
the opportunity to join in this effort, I heartily recommend doing so.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
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