[mou] Deep Listing

[Jim Williams]

Here is an interesting idea. Anyone care to comment?
This also is a strong endorsement for Cornell's eBird data project, 
which deserves everyone's attention, Deep Lister or not.
Jim Williams
Wayzata

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rob Fergus <fergus@mail.utexas.edu>
Date: September 19, 2005 10:29:30 AM CDT
To: Conservationthroughbirding@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Conservationthroughbirding] Deep Twitching
Reply-To: Conservationthroughbirding@yahoogroups.com

Last week, Sheri Williamson and I slipped out of an Arizona Audubon 
meeting for
a couple hours so I could go see my first White-eared Hummingbird at 
Beatty's
Guest Ranch near Sierra Vista.  While discussing stereotypical bird 
listers
that don't care about conservation (we both emphatically denied being 
such
crass listers), Sheri mentioned that what we needed was some new 
concept of
Deep Twitching...like Deep Ecology, something that gave more 
conservation
substance to our love of chasing after new birds.

This past week I've thought alot about Deep Twitching, and maybe 
something like
Deep Listing, or even Deep Birding.  Towards that end, I propose an 
initial
rule for Deep Twitching:

Only birds reported to a larger citizen science bird conservation 
project can be
counted.

That goes for life birds, state birds, county birds, yard 
birds...whatever.
They only count if they are entered into a bigger data set that can 
help guide
conservation planning.  If you just write them in your book, the birds 
don't
count.

And the good news is that with the brand new release of eBird 2, 
Audubon and
Cornell Lab of Ornithology have just made it easier than ever to Deep 
List.
You can now keep track of your Life, State, County, and Yard (or any 
other
location) lists online at eBird.  Just go to

eBird.org

enter in your location, click a couple boxes, and in less time than it 
takes to
read this message, you can report all the birds you've seen so far this
morning.

The new, improved eBird 2 lets you see all your sightings, all your 
lists, as
well as maps of everyone else's sightings.  By reporting all your 
sightings
here, your data isn't lost in your notebooks, it goes towards helping 
chart the
distribution and abundance of the birds in your yard, county, state, 
and the
whole country...

..which makes your sightings eligible for Deep Listing!

And here are some great ways to encourage Deep Listing with eBird:

--Get backyard birders to enter their backyard sightings.
--Get nature centers or refuges to keep their sightings online
--Have all competitive state, county, or ABA listers submit their lists
--Have a contest to see who in your Audubon chapter or birding club can 
submit
the most lists in a year...the most sightings...visit the most places 
in your
area, etc.
--See how many of your club members can submit the most historical 
sightings
from their old notebooks

Use your creativity.  Get folks fired up.  You don't have to have an 
ABA list of
800+ to be the best Deep Lister.  But you do have to enter your bird 
sightings.

Check out the new eBird 2.  Its fantastic.  And can be a great tool for 
your
local bird conservation efforts.

What if everyone in your local area regularly reported to eBird the 
birds in
their backyard?  The interesting birds they see on the way to work?  
All the
birds they see at the local state or city park?  You could then use 
eBird to
generate maps of bird distribution in your area...and seasonal abundance
checklists, or...

What if when the next Big Real Estate Development comes to your 
community, and
you want to do something about it--and you actually have real data on 
local
bird abundance and distribution from eBird to back you up in your 
attempts to
influence a zoning board, county board of supervisors, developer, etc.

Let me be the first to take the Deep Twitching pledge...
I will only count bird sightings that are entered into eBird or some 
other
citizen science database!

While that means that my ABA list has just dropped down to 206 species 
and my
Texas list has only 1 (shameful!!) species (as of this morning)...its 
just a
matter of time before I get my old sightings entered into eBird so my 
Deep
Birding lists will grow.

Deep Twitching...more than just an obsession!

Rob Fergus
Sellersville, PA
birdchaser.blogspot.com


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