Hi all:
As co-compiler of the Salem Christmas Bird Count, a few new questions
regarding CBC procedures and protocol emerged from the fray this year. So I
put the questions to Geoff LeBaron, Christmas Bird Count Director, National
Audubon Society. You may be interested in his responses.
Question 1: eBird traveling protocol. Several of our team leaders use eBird
to record their Salem CBC observations. eBird has instructed us to count
miles in only one direction if we do any back tracking on a traveling
count. Should we follow this same protocol when recording traveling CBC
effort?
Geoff's response: "First, with regard to the distance traveled, yes, you
should only count the one-way distance for a given route if the party needs
to double back to the starting point. So a walk of 2 miles out and 2 miles
back along the same trail is tallied as 2 miles total, not 4."
Question 2: In July of 2016, the AUO changed the name of the Western
Scrub-Jay to California Scrub-Jay. I am not able to add this new species to
the Audubon Christmas Bird Count Bird Checklist. Please advise.
Geoff's response: "
With regard to the scrub-jay split, much to my chagrin we were not able to
update the species table in the CBC to accept the split. Please enter your
birds as Western Scrub-Jay. When the table is updated, your data will be
allocated retroactively to California Scrub-Jay.
"
Question 3:
I've learned that some compilers are adding species that were submitted to
eBird in their count circle on count day that were independent from their
team efforts. Is this acceptable? If so, how should effort be handled?
Also, how do we avoid double counting birds? Are there any situation in
which this is procedure is acceptable?
Geoff's response: "It is absolutely *not acceptable* to add eBird or any
other reports of birds that were not tallied by the folks on your official
field parties. Doing that would totally mess with the CBC protocol, as
it’s unlikely to be a full check-list and introduces a severe likelihood of
double-counting if a full eBird checklist is added. So *only* species and
numbers from your official field parties (and feeder watchers) should
included with your CBC tallies. The only time this would be acceptable is
if the eBird list is submitted from a group or person who has already been
in touch to be a part of the count, as many CBC participants do upload
their route tallies to eBird. But first and foremost those types of
tallies are CBC data that are uploaded to eBird, and not vice-versa." Note,
the bold emphasis is Geoff's.
Question 4: This year, we anticipated that we would have considerable
snow, icy roads and sub freezing temperatures on count day. Some team
leaders asked us to change the count day. Many factors were considered.
Eventually, we decided to stick with the scheduled date even though
conditions were not ideal. We did advise all of our team leaders to not
jeopardize their safety or that of their team participants. Do you have any
advise if this situation should happen again in the future? From a
scientific standpoint, is it important to try to keep count day on the same
day each year?
Geoff's response:
"
As far as inclement weather on count day and how that affects your routes
and results, as you told your party leaders first and foremost is the
safety of your observers. So if conditions are dangerous, it’s best to
cancel or postpone the count. If folks can go out, even in reduced numbers
or with reduced effort/distance, the data are still valuable as we do
gather the effort data as well as the bird data so the results are still
meaningful to researchers using CBC data. If a reduced-effort count is
necessary, it is better if possible to stick as much as you can with your
regular routes, as then the results are more comparable to normal seasons.
"
Tim Johnson
Co-compiler, Salem Christmas Bird Count
