What Birding organizations do you belong to?
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1Sandydog1
Let's share our various bird clubs. It would be interesting to see organizations from throughout the LT world.
I'm a member of several, but here's my main one:
http://www.ctbirding.org/
I'm a member of several, but here's my main one:
http://www.ctbirding.org/
2LCB48
Eaton Birding Society. Geneva, NY http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Eatonbirds/
Friend of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex
http://friendsofmontezuma.org/
Friend of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex
http://friendsofmontezuma.org/
7perennialreader
I am a member of The Tennessee Ornithological Society (BOD At-Large Member),
The Nashville Tennessee Ornithological Society and
North Alabama Birdwatchers Society (NABS).
I also support the National Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I guess that makes me a member. I send them $$.
I also support Friends of Radnor Lake (Nashville TN) $$
The Nashville Tennessee Ornithological Society and
North Alabama Birdwatchers Society (NABS).
I also support the National Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I guess that makes me a member. I send them $$.
I also support Friends of Radnor Lake (Nashville TN) $$
9perennialreader
As for apps
eBird
iBird Lite
Merlin
iNaturalist
Mostly eBird & Merlin
eBird
iBird Lite
Merlin
iNaturalist
Mostly eBird & Merlin
10Tess_W
eBird
I am going to join our local Audubon Society when Covid clears up and I can attend meetings or outings. No sense in paying now to do nothing.
I am going to join our local Audubon Society when Covid clears up and I can attend meetings or outings. No sense in paying now to do nothing.
11NorthernStar
Feederwatch and Birds Canada. Both online. Plus several facebook groups for birds in BC and Alberta, which are mostly picture sites. There are no local groups. And I do have apps for Merlin, ebird, and a few others.
12Tess_W
I can't get the ebird app to work, and there is no response from ebird, even though there is an option to send them an email, which I've done twice.
13John5918
Birdwatching — yes, birdwatching — is now the highlight of Jeremy Clarkson’s days (Times)
Wasn't sure where to post this but it does mention the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. For those who don't know, Jeremy Clarkson is a very well known and controversial British TV personality who is probably loved and hated in equal measure, and an endorsement from him is probably a boost for birding. Clarkson's TV speciality was motoring shows, and the first line is a pun on the Reliant Robin, a three-wheel car popular in Britain in my youth which he routinely mocks.
I’m reliant on a robin for excitement — the red-breasted warrior is king of my garden...
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was formed towards the end of the 19th century in a bid to stop rich women decorating their fur coats with the feathers from great crested grebes...
Wasn't sure where to post this but it does mention the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. For those who don't know, Jeremy Clarkson is a very well known and controversial British TV personality who is probably loved and hated in equal measure, and an endorsement from him is probably a boost for birding. Clarkson's TV speciality was motoring shows, and the first line is a pun on the Reliant Robin, a three-wheel car popular in Britain in my youth which he routinely mocks.
14Tess_W
Yeah, I finally got ebird to let me sign in. I'm a bit disappointed as I can't find pictures of the birds listed for my area. (I might be overlooking them) But I do love that it pinpoints all the places birds were found that are within 10 miles of me.
15John5918
>14 Tess_W:
What I like about eBird is that when I submit a sighting it only offers me birds which can be expected in my area. That helps me with doubtful identifications. But by the same token it is frustrating when I'm pretty sure I saw a particular bird and eBird doesn't allow it. In those cases I contact our local eBird volunteer and he usually sorts it out for me.
A case in point is when I was halfway down the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley and I spotted a bronze sunbird. No doubt about it, there's no other sunbird that it could have been. eBird rejected it. When I contacted the volunteer he explained that eBird filters the birds according to habitat. Down in the valley is one distinct habitat where bronze sunbirds are found. Up on the top is another habitat where they aren't found. On the boundary between the two habitats they will of course be found, but eBird's filtering system draws a firm line between habitats rather than recognising a grey area of overlap. He fixed it so I could enter my sighting. Likewise Wahlberg's eagle, which I spotted from my kitchen window. eBird rejected the sighting, but when I contacted him he was excited as there had been one or two other sightings recently, and again he fixed it so I could enter it. He pointed out to me that there are very few birders in the areas where I birdwatch (my own sparsely populated part of rural Kenya, plus parts of South Sudan) so data is patchy and often well out of date, so it's not surprising that some of my sightings are at odds with the existing records. Pioneering stuff!
What I like about eBird is that when I submit a sighting it only offers me birds which can be expected in my area. That helps me with doubtful identifications. But by the same token it is frustrating when I'm pretty sure I saw a particular bird and eBird doesn't allow it. In those cases I contact our local eBird volunteer and he usually sorts it out for me.
A case in point is when I was halfway down the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley and I spotted a bronze sunbird. No doubt about it, there's no other sunbird that it could have been. eBird rejected it. When I contacted the volunteer he explained that eBird filters the birds according to habitat. Down in the valley is one distinct habitat where bronze sunbirds are found. Up on the top is another habitat where they aren't found. On the boundary between the two habitats they will of course be found, but eBird's filtering system draws a firm line between habitats rather than recognising a grey area of overlap. He fixed it so I could enter my sighting. Likewise Wahlberg's eagle, which I spotted from my kitchen window. eBird rejected the sighting, but when I contacted him he was excited as there had been one or two other sightings recently, and again he fixed it so I could enter it. He pointed out to me that there are very few birders in the areas where I birdwatch (my own sparsely populated part of rural Kenya, plus parts of South Sudan) so data is patchy and often well out of date, so it's not surprising that some of my sightings are at odds with the existing records. Pioneering stuff!
16Tess_W
>15 John5918: Oh wow, I was not even aware there were local people to contact! I'm sure once I get more familiar with the app, I will learn to like it more.
17John5918
>16 Tess_W:
I don't know whether it actually gives an option to contact your local volunteer monitor, as in my case he contacted me after I entered a dodgy sighting. Their role is to try to maintain the integrity of the data posted to eBird. But once he had contacted me by e-mail, we were able to contact each other again as needed. He's also been very helpful in identifying for me one or two birds which I managed to get a photo of but couldn't identify.
I don't know whether it actually gives an option to contact your local volunteer monitor, as in my case he contacted me after I entered a dodgy sighting. Their role is to try to maintain the integrity of the data posted to eBird. But once he had contacted me by e-mail, we were able to contact each other again as needed. He's also been very helpful in identifying for me one or two birds which I managed to get a photo of but couldn't identify.
18John5918
This article popped up on my smartphone today (even though it's three months old).
How eBird Changed Birding Forever (Outside)
The article goes on to mention the reviewing process:
My local reviewer is certainly one of those who goes out of his way to help a relatively inexperienced birder.
How eBird Changed Birding Forever (Outside)
Over the past two decades, eBird has become the go-to online platform for scientists and hobbyists alike to upload and share bird observations. But it has also transformed the process and etiquette of birding...
At its most basic level, eBird documents bird sightings. A team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology created the platform in 2002, and it became widely used by birders within a few years. As of 2020, it has collected more than 860 million global bird observations from over 597,000 registered eBirders. By sheer numbers alone, eBird is one of the world’s largest citizen-science projects. It is now used to understand species distributions, population trends, migration pathways, and even habitat use. “If used properly, it should be a tool to understand bird populations at scale in ways we never have before, and to apply that to conservation actions”...
The article goes on to mention the reviewing process:
This is where data-vetting steps, like eBird’s review process, come in. Each eBird reviewer is a volunteer selected for their knowledge or experience in a state, region, or country. Reviewers act as quality filters and check observations for accuracy, detail, and validity. They may contact observers to request specific details about unusual sightings, point out misidentifications, or ask for justification about higher-than-expected numbers reported for a particular species. Some reviewers even go out of their way to coach users unfamiliar with eBird on how to use the database and app to enhance the quality of the information. This verification effort, in turn, makes eBird data more valuable to birders, citizen scientists, and professional scientists... If an eBird reviewer catches an ID mistake, usually from a photo, they reach out to the eBird user, typically with a polite template email that starts with, “Thank you for being a part of eBird. To help make sure that eBird can be used for scientific research and conservation, volunteers like me follow up on unusual sightings as a part of the eBird data quality process.” They’ll then explain why the species is listed incorrectly and request that the user change the ID to the correct species. This mutual respect between reviewers and birders tracks with offline birding etiquette...
My local reviewer is certainly one of those who goes out of his way to help a relatively inexperienced birder.
20TempleCat
>1 Sandydog1:
I’m a member of the National Audubon Society and its state organization. I follow a couple of local clubs and I have a number of apps on my phone - Audubon, Merlin Bird ID, iNaturalist and BirdNET.
I’m a member of the National Audubon Society and its state organization. I follow a couple of local clubs and I have a number of apps on my phone - Audubon, Merlin Bird ID, iNaturalist and BirdNET.
