Hi, Today a visiter from Lake Oswego posted a checklist > at the 'Oregon20/20-- Lincoln City' hotspot. She observed > 20 Western Gulls. I'm wondering if she was at the > Oregon20/20--Lincoln City hotspot or if she was on > a beach elsewhere in Lincoln City, and thought that > Oregon20/20--Lincoln City meant anywhere in Lincoln > City. Can't tell. If these new hotspots are meant > to be unique locations, it would be best to give them > unique names that cannot be confused with Lincoln > City, Newport or Alsea Bay. Chestnut Chickadee? Wandering > Tattler? Warbling Vireo? Deb Holland > > > Doug, > > > > I live near the Anna's Hummingbird square in Eugene. > There is a hotspot inside the square (EWEB wetlands). > How will situations like this be handled? Should > I double-post if I'm birding the EWEB wetlands? Or > only use the Anna's Hummingbird spot outside of the > EWEB location? > > Vjera > > > > > On Monday, April 21, 2014 3:52 PM, W. Douglas Robinson > <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi gang, > > Just a heads-up that there will be a bunch of new > Oregon hotspots added to the state in the next few > days. We've been working with eBird and Brian Sullivan > to get a grid-like sampling scheme established for > Oregon 2020. Through lots of discussions and planning > we realized that to meet the main goal of 2020, to > establish benchmark measurements of Oregon bird distributions > and abundances, we need more structure to how we sample > birds across the state. This resulted in a type of > sampling grid that is stratified across townships, > but preserves an element of randomization (a necessary > assumption of statistical approaches that will let > us estimate statewide population sizes). The sites, > what we call hotspot squares, are one mile square > sections selected randomly from each 36-square mile > township in the state. That totals about 2800 of these > sample sites. > > You can see the sites here: > > http://tools.oregonexplorer.info/oe_map_viewer_2_0/Viewe > r.html?Viewer=Oregon2020 > > We will be announcing all these updates with more > explanation of why we picked areas of this size, etc, > on the 2020 web page, OBOL and the upcoming eBird > Northwest portal very soon, especially since breeding > season is upon us. > > All of the hotspot squares are named "Oregon 2020--hotspot > square name". So, all begin with Oregon 2020-- > > They have unique names, associated with a geographical > feature, road, etc, within each one-square mile hotspot > square. However, a subset of about 300 of these (11% > of the total) are named after birds; e.g., Oregon > 2020--Evening Grosbeak. These are called the Hot 300 > and we will be developing some challenges associated > with counting birds in as many of the Hot 300 as possible. > We aim to have prizes from sponsors for those who > contribute the most from the Hot 300, all the hotspot > squares in each county, and all the hotspot squares > statewide. It should be really fun. > > Anyway, this email is just to alert you that this > is happening, that you will be able to use the Explorer > Tools on eBird to see who has visited each hotspot > square and what they saw, and to easily locate each > hotspot square if you use BirdLog to enter data. All > > > Let me know if you have questions. > > All the best, > Doug > ..