Hi everyone!
I hope everyone is as excited about the upcoming pelagics as I am! In light
of those trips, I wanted to bring to everyone's attention a new eBird
hotspot which has been created to help improve reporting on Virginia Beach
pelagic trips. As some of you may know, the trips cross between waters that
are in two geographic areas: The City of Virginia Beach, and Northampton
County. Currently, there is an eBird hotspot for "Virginia Beach Pelagic
(general location)" which is located in Northampton County. While this
hotspot covers most of the birds seen on these trips, it does not account
for the portion of the trip that is VA Beach waters. Those of us who are
interested in county listing have set up a new hotspot for "Virginia Beach
inshore waters north (Lynnhaven)," in an effort to correct this problem. If
you are interested in and able to keep track of birds in the different
counties, please try to use this hotspot when reporting birds in VA Beach.
Unfortunately, the nature of these trips can make it somewhat difficult to
determine exactly which county you are in at any given time. Also, doing
30-minute counts is a bit cumbersome and takes time away from searching for
birds. Use of the hotspots for inshore and pelagic sightings is a fair
middle ground for entry purposes since it doesn't take much effort, but is
a valuable separation of data. The best general guideline to offer for
pelagics out of Lynnhaven Inlet is if you are west of the Chesapeake Light
platform you can safely presume you are in Virginia Beach waters according
to eBird's 'nearest point of land' philosophy. While in these waters, it
makes sense to use the "Virginia Beach inshore waters north (Lynnhaven)"
hotspot. The platform is 17 miles off the coastline, and once you pass it,
you are likely in Northampton waters. Here, you may make use of the
"Virginia Beach pelagic (general location)" hotspot. On the trips in late
January where we might go as far as Norfolk Canyon, there is an additional
hotspot at that location if desired.
Rob Bielawski's website includes more detailed information, along with maps
that show the approximate county boundaries and the location of the
Chesapeake Light platform. It can be accessed using the following link:
http://www.rbnature.com/vbpelagics
Thanks, and good luck to everyone on the trips!
Best,
--Matt Anthony
College of William & Mary
