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Apr. 7th, 2022 08:03 amDon't remember if I posted it when it happened, but a while back I got an email. I've been using the eBird app to keep track of my birdwatching for years now. eBird comes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and people's counts are tracked, analyzed, and used in scientific studies when they submit them. Remember that news story about how we've lost billions of birds since the 1970s? eBird reports from around the world were a sizable part of the data that allowed scientists to come to that conclusion. Old reports were done on paper; newer reports include people's app data, whether from eBird or various Audubon birding apps or other sources. It all adds up.
Anyway, the email I got was from the eBird folks, saying that my data showed I had reported shorebird sightings in the past and would I consider future participation in the International Shorebird Survey, which had a specific viewing/reporting protocol. I said sure, why not; the ISS protocol only really required a little more diligence of observation and a few extra bits of data (precipitation? tidal stage? wind levels?). I'd have to go back to the same sites at least three times, if not more, during the spring and autumn shorebird migrations. Given that this mostly means 'walk to the end of the block, turn right, then walk a block and a half', this is not a terrible hardship. I have a few other spots where I go at least three times in the course of a given season- a nearby swampy-beachy park with shoreline access, the nearest local actual beach- so yeah, okay, I figured if I spotted any of the species categorized as shorebirds at those I'd make them official ISS survey locations for my reporting and make an extra point of visiting them regularly.
Eventually went and looked up the ISS project. Turned out it wasn't just scientists doing academic processing of shorebird numbers, it's a volunteer-run thing whose data is used as one of the sources for the US Shorebird Conservation Plan and for selecting potential sites for designated reserves.
I'm good with this.
https://www.manomet.org/project/international-shorebird-survey/
https://www.manomet.org/iss-map/
(Side note: I'm not entirely sure what the specific species that constitute shorebirds as opposed to other categories of water-intensive birds are, but fortunately I don't have to make the distinction, I just have to submit appropriately formatted surveys and the people on the other end sort out the data. But my beloved weirdoes the oystercatchers definitely qualify. So do the piping plovers I saw at the beach the other day, and the killdeer I spotted yesterday as I was getting ready to leave the swampy-beachy park.)
(Another side note: unless shorebirds practice the same kind of dominance displays as dogs, it's oystercatcher mating season.)
Anyway, the email I got was from the eBird folks, saying that my data showed I had reported shorebird sightings in the past and would I consider future participation in the International Shorebird Survey, which had a specific viewing/reporting protocol. I said sure, why not; the ISS protocol only really required a little more diligence of observation and a few extra bits of data (precipitation? tidal stage? wind levels?). I'd have to go back to the same sites at least three times, if not more, during the spring and autumn shorebird migrations. Given that this mostly means 'walk to the end of the block, turn right, then walk a block and a half', this is not a terrible hardship. I have a few other spots where I go at least three times in the course of a given season- a nearby swampy-beachy park with shoreline access, the nearest local actual beach- so yeah, okay, I figured if I spotted any of the species categorized as shorebirds at those I'd make them official ISS survey locations for my reporting and make an extra point of visiting them regularly.
Eventually went and looked up the ISS project. Turned out it wasn't just scientists doing academic processing of shorebird numbers, it's a volunteer-run thing whose data is used as one of the sources for the US Shorebird Conservation Plan and for selecting potential sites for designated reserves.
I'm good with this.
https://www.manomet.org/project/international-shorebird-survey/
https://www.manomet.org/iss-map/
(Side note: I'm not entirely sure what the specific species that constitute shorebirds as opposed to other categories of water-intensive birds are, but fortunately I don't have to make the distinction, I just have to submit appropriately formatted surveys and the people on the other end sort out the data. But my beloved weirdoes the oystercatchers definitely qualify. So do the piping plovers I saw at the beach the other day, and the killdeer I spotted yesterday as I was getting ready to leave the swampy-beachy park.)
(Another side note: unless shorebirds practice the same kind of dominance displays as dogs, it's oystercatcher mating season.)
