P.S. A more general comment on ducks:
Looking through the late-spring/summer season lists on eBird, for the
species that are marginal nesters in the Willamette Valley, a surprising
thing is how few eBird checklists give any relevant details. Where
details are given for reports of numbers that might suggest nesting (and
this is a small minority of the reports), they seem to be aimed mainly
at convincing the county reviewers about the accuracy of the species
identification. Just a few lists mention if ducklings were observed or
if all birds observed were adults.
If this is the new reporting paradigm, seems like we're missing a lot of
significant information that ordinarily would have been reported through
more traditional channels, but doesn't show up in the raw numbers on
eBird.
Maybe "old-fashioned" e-mail lists and even older reporting methods
still have a purpose after all?
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
