Valmont Rez, Boulder County, Dec. 25

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, Birders. Hannah Floyd and I birded the Valmont Reservoir complex, Boulder County, late yesterday afternoon, Christmas Day, Fri., Dec. 25. The common loon, first reported, I believe, by Bill Kaempfer on the Boulder CBC (Dec. 20), was still there. The long-present tundra swan was there, too. Nice to see a couple bald eagles and a prairie falcon. Mergansers galore. A bit after 3pm, a Corvus fly-in featured a Chihuahuan raven, or, perhaps I should say, what I consider to be a Chihuahuan raven.

I appreciate the caution that many, including Colorado's superb eBird reviewers, apply to Chihuahuan raven ID. I suspect our detection of the raven will be invalidated by the reviewers--and I have no problem with that. I just wish that invalidated records like this one (ID not disproven, just uncertain) remained in the public database, prominently flagged as rejected/invalidated--so that we can at least know what might be out there.

This is simply a point on which eBird and I are in disagreement. It's okay to disagree. I think eBird is magnificent, and, as we start to think about New Years resolutions for 2016, I propose the following: How about if all of us submit at least one eBird checklist per day for each day of 2016. eBird is that great. eBird is that important.

Here's our eBird checklist from yesterday:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26450225

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County

[Susan Wise]

I shall say out loud what so many of us are thinking reading this post...

I'm glad that it's not just me that gets invalidated by the superb eBird reviewers.  That even the famous Ted Floyd who can hear a bird at 10,000 feet at 2:30 am gets questioned!!!  HAHAHA.  

Susan Wise (still looking for the Golden-crowned Sparrow)

Superior, Boulder County

[Jeff Parks]

I am another person who questions the criteria for postings on eBird to show up in the main listings. I reported a common loon at Valmont in early December, but I don't know if it ever showed up in the main list. More recently, I reported a gray catbird that we spotted during the CBC on Dec 20th, but it hasn't shown up in the main listings as of this morning. These birds show up in my lists, as far as I know (I can see them when I open individual reports), but don't always make it on the main "overview" list. To see what birds have been reported, I look for places that I am interested in, and open the individual reports to see what was reported there. eBbird may be a useful tool overall, but I don't have complete confidence that the "overview" listing page will contain everything that has been spotted, especially birds that are unusual for the location or date. I suppose a flawed tool is better than no tool at all, as the information is there, but not always in a form that is easy to use. Once you figure out the quirks, it can be a helpful source of information.