First, Greg Gillson, who will correct me if I'm wrong because I think
he still monitors OBOL, was a vigorous actor in the early promotion
of eBird and back-filled his entire county listing database to eBird.
For a while he was the top eBirder in just about every county in the
State and still ranks near the top just about everywhere. This is
especially true in low population counties. He ranks number 3 in Clatsop
Co. behind me and Tom Crabtree (who I also suspect did some serious
back-filling) and number 5 in Tillamook Co.
There is nothing wrong with back-filling. I've done quite a bit for
Clatsop, Tillamook and Pacific Cos. I will argue, however, that
back-filled data often lacks the precision of new data, especially in
those cases where the filler is simply trying to fill out their county
life-list on eBird. Dates and locations should be considered suspect...
Now on to Red-breasted Sapsucker...
If you really want to assess the distribution of sapsuckers in the Coast
range, look for sapsucker holes not sapsuckers...
I would characterize them as the poster child of the term "locally
common". There are places in Clatsop where I ALWAYS find them,
sometimes multiple birds. And there are other places where they are a
genuine surprise. Most visiting birders do not go targeting sapsuckers
when they come to the coast. Heck, most birders only come to the coast
for shorebirds, shearwaters, and ground doves (if we are to believe eBird).
The bottom line here is, as Mr Irons suggests, local knowledge about
birds is communicated less efficiently in low population counties. As a
result the status and distribution of some of the more localized or
cryptic species may be underrepresented in broader based birding
databases, including Christmas bird counts, birdnotes, eBird, _Oregon
Birds: a general reference_, Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas, Oregon 2020 and
especially, the mind palaces of some of us old birders (hopefully by
being all inclusive I won't be accused of picking on any one particular
database).
--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
The history of photons
http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/northcoastdiaries/?p=3005
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