Thanks Craig. I knew you could get email alerts but wasn't aware you could
get rarity sightings without the email alerts. I just looked up Lincoln
County alerts and saw this Dickcissel report I heard of nowhere else.
Dickcissel <https://ebird.org/species/dickci/US-OR-041>*Spiza americana*
UNCONFIRMED 1 Dec 27, 2018 15:39CHECKLIST
<https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S51007653> 610 Lemwick Lane, Yachats,
Oregon, US (44.322, -124.106)MAP
<http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=44.3221167,-124.1059585&ll=44.3221167,-124.1059585>
Lincoln Oregon, United States Tyler Gholson
On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 9:37 AM Craig Tumer <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Paul et al.,
Reports of rarities need to be vetted by eBird reviewers before they show
up in the areas where you looked for WRSA sightings, as described below.
That can take quite some time. If the reports haven't been confirmed by a
reviewer they would not show up in the areas where you searched.
The easiest way to see recent rarity reports submitted to eBird is to go
to the "Alerts" section, which can be reached from the "Explore" page. Once
at the "Alerts" page, enter the county, state, or country you're interested
in, and eBird will generate a list of rare birds reported for that location
within the last week, regardless of whether the reports have been confirmed
by the eBird reviewer. It's really quite simple once you know where to
look.
Fewer people are reporting sightings to OBOL than in the past, and posts
of l ong-staying rarities to OBOL die off pretty quickly after the first
few days of sightings.
Craig Tumer
Portland
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [obol] timely notification: OBOL vs eBird
From: "Paul Sullivan" <paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, January 03, 2019 8:57 am
To: <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On a Wednesday last September a White-rumped Sandpiper was reported at the
north end of Necanicum estuary, at a place called Little Beach near
Gearhart. I went there on Thursday and got to see the bird, along with
several other birders. There were photos in OBOL and eBird reports.
On Friday someone hopeful for a weekend chase asked on OBOL if the bird
was still being seen. There were no OBOL reports on Friday.
Thinking there might be people who posted to eBird and not OBOL on Friday,
and wanting to be helpful, I went to eBird to look for reports of the
bird. I went to Explore Data and tried 4 avenues:
1. Species: I searched on White—rumped Sandpiper and got a map of the
WORLD with every White-rumped Sandpiper ever reported. Zooming in on NW
Oregon I found a pin drop out on the beach from last year.
2. Location; I searched on Clatsop county Oregon. That led me to the same
pin drop from last year.
3. Hot spot: I searched on hot spots and found that Little Beach in
Gearhart is not even listed as a hotspot. Why? A lot of good birds have
been found there.
4. Recent checklists: Finally I went to recent checklists in Clatsop
county. I found a pile of checklists reporting Yellow-rumped warblers from
Saddle Mt. etc, etc.
Finally down in the pile I found a couple checklist from people who had
seen the White-rumped Sandpiper and even got good photos, but who hadn’t
reported to OBOL. Just what I was looking for. However, the reports were
from late Thursday. At that point I gave up the eChase. No new
information.
I presume that my first three approaches didn’t find the sandpiper was
because the eBird reviewer hadn’t vetted the Wed – Thur reports. That’s
just the structure of eBird.
So eBird has the latest rare bird sightings, but they are buried in a
blizzard of checklists of ordinary birds. It’s not simple to search.
If I were subscribed to eBird alerts for White-rumped Sandpiper or for
Clatsop county, I might have got the information more quickly, but I don’t
choose to be signed up for reports from a wealth of places or about a
wealth of species.
OBOL seems quicker and simpler to me.
Paul Sullivan
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