Thanks Doug and Russ. I feel the same way. If I would have noticed the
Meares Lake hotspot, I probably would have used it for expediency sake and
not given it another thought, but it is not at the end of the lake where
the shorebird concentrations are/were and I didn't notice it. Hmmm.
Okay, one more step to cinch this tight.... Okay, so there are two
hotspots that I could use. Neither are at the location from which I
observed birds. The bay/east hotspot is up on the road, where someone might
look for vagrant warblers, whereas I was down on the flats east of the
parking area. Our viewing of shorebirds on Meares Lake was at the far NE
end, the opposite end of the lake from the hotspot location.
Use hotspots? Or place my own location.
I try to use hotspots if they are located where I have birded--I think it
is valuable to have the pooled data available. If I was traveling and the
hotspot is placed somewhere within my travels (or in the area that the
birds were vs me such as on a lake), it's a no-brainer, I use the hotspot.
But if I had a fixed location and neither I nor the birds were located at
the hotspot location (as in both these cases at Bayocean), I ... hesitate.
If eBird HQ is going to eventually have a functionality that allows
lassoing nearby checklists for summaries of a hotspot, then I would fall on
the side of just putting my locations as accurately as possible in this
instance....
Your opinions? Thank-you.
Matt
On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 9:34 AM, Russ Namitz <namitzr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Matt~
Although poorly placed on the very west side, there is a Hotspot for
Meares Lake. I know Doug R would advocate for keeping the lists separate
and since there are two different Hotspots, I would probably do the same.
Russ
------------------------------
*From:* orebird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <orebird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Matthew G Hunter <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Thursday, December 8, 2016 9:24 AM
*To:* OReBird
*Subject:* [orebird] Bayocean locations
Hi Folks,
In my 1980s field notes from the Tillamook area, Bayocean spit, I have
my numbers split up between the flats and Meares Lake (which at that time
often had open ground/mud for shorebirds; I don't know what it is like
now). At first I just selected the east or bay-side hotspot and lumped my
numbers, but I'm wondering if there might be a benefit to keeping the
numbers separate and making my own points for the flats and for Meares
Lake.
Interested in your opinions.
Matt
