[TN-Bird] Tom McNeil recognized by Cornell and Audubon for national eBirder award
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 12:29:07 -0400
Tom McNeil, our local birder from Elizabethton, TN,
has been selected as the national eBirder for the
Month of May by Cornell University and the National
Audubon Society. Tom, because of his willingness to
advance with modern birding tools and lead the rest
of us into this vast and highly-important realm of
birds, has easily taken the regional lead in being one
of Tennessee's most recognized and talented birders.
eBird is a global tools for birders and critical data for
science
A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has
revolutionized the way that the birding community
reports and accesses information about birds.
Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich
data sources for basic information on bird abundance
and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal
scales.
eBird's goal is to maximize the utility and accessibility
of the vast numbers of bird observations made each
year by recreational and professional bird watchers.
It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing
biodiversity data resources in existence. For example,
in March 2012, participants reported more than
3.1 million bird observations across North America!
-- Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
Tom McNeil, May 2014
eBirder of the Month
12 June 2014
Tom McNeil and his partner Cathy Myers at one of 117 locations where he
submitted a checklist during May 2014.
Tom McNeil and his partner
Cathy Myers at one of 117
locations where he submitted
a checklist during May 2014.
Please join us in congratulating Tom McNeil
of Elizabethton, TN, USA, winner of the
May 2014 eBird Challenge, sponsored by
Carl Zeiss Sports Optic. 328 birders submitted
at least 100 checklists during the month of May
making them eligible for this contest. Tom's
name was drawn at random from this group.
Some of you may be wondering, how is it possible
to enter 100 checklists in a single month?! We
asked Tom to let us know how he did it. Here's
what Tom said: "Wow! This is still a total surprise!
I'm surprised at both the luck in being selected and
in the fact that I submitted over 100 checklists for
May 2014! Haha..I double-checked the numbers
to make sure (which is one of the things that is quick
and easy to do on eBird). This past January marked
25 years that I have been birding, so I will think of it
as an anniversary gift as well.
I became interested in birds as an
undergraduate biology student at East
Tennessee State University. Actually,
prior to taking an ornithology class under
Dr. Fred Alsop in 1989, I was not-at-all
interested in birds. Dr. Alsop informed
us that the course would change our lives
forever.and he was correct! Once, on a
coastal field trip to the Outer Banks of
North Carolina, a naturalist at the NC
Aquarium asked us if we were birding
as a club or a class. Dr. Alsop calmly
answered "It is just a way of life".
For me, those words are even more true today than
they were at that time. After finishing graduate
school at ETSU, I began teaching biology classes
at Northeast State Community College in
Blountville, TN, and have been there ever since.
In describing how I use eBird, I thought at first
that it might be easier to tell you how I do not
use it. I was going to make the statement that
"I do not use eBird for grocery shopping". But then,
I suddenly realized that I have submitted several
checklists from grocery store parking lots in multiple
states! I guess eBird has become "just a way of life".
May the 2nd is a good example of a somewhat
typical day. Before leaving for work on that day,
I spent a few minutes birding on the back deck
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18175684> .
I arrived at work a bit early, so I birded along the walkway
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18177475>
to the building entrance. After class, I drove to a
local park <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18179774> for some
birding time. Then I stopped briefly
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18181716>
on the way home. Once home, I opened the doors and
windows and began an afternoon list
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18187127> , which can often
be quite different from a morning list.
I have been using eBird for less than two years, but in
that time I have submitted over 2,500 checklists.
Many of those checklists were from the boxes of
field-cards that I have saved over the years. That
shoe-box data is now archived and available to
anyone that would need it. It is also contributing
to the scientific understanding of birds distributions.
Plus, I can access the data in lots of different ways.
With just one click, I could pull-up every American
Robin observation that I have made at an individual
birding spot or in the entire world! That is awesome!
The Bar Charts are one of my favorite eBird tools for
looking at data for a particular area and making
predictions about arrival/departure times.
But, the tool that has made me such an avid
eBirder is the BirdsEye BirdLog app. Taking
notes in the field and then returning home
to enter them in a data base can be quite
time-consuming.especially if you have birded
multiple locations on a single day. That was
the primary reason that I was resistant to
using eBird for so long. But with BirdLog - I
record the data, add details if needed, and
submit directly from the field. My phone has
replaced my pad and pencil. The locations can
be quickly accessed by map, species can be
pulled-up by band codes, and individuals can
be added by simply tapping the number. Also,
I can quickly generate a complete tally at the
end of the day. These time-saving tricks make
record-keeping quick and easy.
I did enjoy a great deal of birding in May. My
partner, Cathy Myers, and I traveled to Arizona
and Texas for a couple of weeks of exciting birding.
This was her first time traveling west of Oklahoma,
so she added a total of 118 species to her life list.
I was able to pick-up 17 life birds. And yes, eBird
played a major role in allowing us to find some of
those species. The View and Explore Data features
are fantastic for narrowing down precise spots to
look for specific species. Prior to leaving, I spent
a few days using these features (especially the
Range/Point Maps and Explore a Location). Using
that data, we were able to quickly find Burrowing
Owl and Tropical Kingbird in Tucson; Elegant Trogon
and Whiskered Screech-Owl in Cave Creek Canyon;
and Olive Warbler in Flagstaff...plus many other
species. We monitored the Rare Bird Alerts
on eBird as well.
We submitted checklists at every location we birded,
even at the interstate rest stops! Another nice
eBird feature is the ability to share a checklist
with others in your party.
Here are a dozen areas we birded:
Buffalo Lake NWR <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18402256>
Kachina Wetlands <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18416159>
Upper Lake Mary <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18422585>
Coconino NF <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18448548> -Schultz
Pass
Oak Creek Canyon <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18470693>
-West Fork
Grand Canyon <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18489470> -South
Rim
The Arboretum at Flagstaff
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18498068>
Sweetwater Wetlands <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18509768>
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18523396>
Lake Cochise <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18540821>
Cave Creek Canyon <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18540920>
-South Fork
Pedernales Falls SP <http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18583841>
Also, our local bird club (Lee and Lois Herndon
Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society
<http://www.tnbirds.org/chapters.htm> )
annually recognizes members who reach 200
species in our five-county area. Cathy and I
made an attempt to reach that number before
we headed west (and we made it). Of course,
that extra effort also helped boost the number
of checklists submitted for May.
My sincere thanks goes out to the entire eBird
and Cornell Lab team for the fantastic job that
you do!
- Tom McNeil
<http://www.nsf.gov/> National Science Foundation
Wolf Creek Charitable Foundation
Leon Levy Foundation
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- » [TN-Bird] Tom McNeil recognized by Cornell and Audubon for national eBirder award - Wallace Coffey
