No less than six lessers

[Richard Willott]

I wanted to let you all know about the Lesser Black-backed gulls at Orient. I doubt you'll see the sighting on eBird because I've reported this species twice already - and nada.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ekgn1KsZCYcv3Mu7A

Nancy and I have seen and duly reported LBBGs from Orient, all sightings from the same area (the entrance road to the park, last couple of jetties before the park buildings). It seems a tad strange, but we've observed LBBGs each time. What's up..?

Happy Autumn

Rich

[Joyce Grigonis]

This is why I don’t do any Ebird reporting anymore. It seems that nepotism is alive and well at Ebird.

I know several local birders who feel the same way. I’m sure a lot of you do too.

Let them have their little insular club. 

We don’t need their affirmation to validate what we know we’ve seen. 

The few times I’ve emailed Ebird to inquire why my report was not (at least!) acknowledged, the reply was very snooty. As if they’d even consider a report from such a nobody in the birding world! 

On Nov 1, 2025, at 7:25 PM, Richard Willott <rewi...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Joyce Grigonis]

Excellent photos by the way!

On Nov 2, 2025, at 7:18 AM, Joyce Grigonis <cadw...@optonline.net> wrote:



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[Hugh McGuinness]

Before there is a piling on towards ebird, I'm wondering if the confusion isn't about how ebird operates. I think some of the confusion has occurred b/c LBBG is no longer considered a rare bird in Suffolk County, and as a result, it does not make the daily summary of rare birds sighted. The reason LBBG isn't a rare bird in Suffolk is that it is now often the most common gull during parts of the year, especially along the South Shore. For example, I counted 49 at Mecox last October, and a whopping 220 at Sagaponack in August 2024. And BTW, I easily found Rich's sightings of LBBG from Orient when I searched for them, so they have become part of the ebird database, they just were not listed on the rare birds page.

The only time records are judged are when they trip the rarity filter or the high count filter. In that case, an unpaid volunteer, who spends hundreds of hours a year reviewing ebird records, requires evidence that the sighting is correct. If the evidence is not convincing, then the record remains in ebird, but is considered unverified. What else would you want ebird to do? Suppose someone starts reporting Lark Bunting or Scaled Antpitta without evidence, what should be done about records like those? I understand why ebird doesn't want those becoming part of the scientific record. As a researcher who uses citizen science (iNat) in my research, I spend too much time culling poorly verified and obviously incorrect records to make up my dataset.

So, I'd be interested to hear how ebird is failing in its mission. And I encourage you all to use ebird bc it is an incredible tool. If you use it to find rare birds, it seems reasonable that you should contribute to the database.

Hugh   

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Hugh McGuinness
Washington, D.C.

[Beverley Robertson]

It sounds like nothing has changed. When I reported yellow-headed blackbird to the local rare bird alert guy back in the early 1990s, my sighting was rejected. It was, I imagine, because I was new to the area (and female) even though I had done lots of birding and reporting with Moraine Audubon in Brookhaven Town. 

Bev (Prentice) Robertson

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 2, 2025, at 5:19 AM, Joyce Grigonis <cadw...@optonline.net> wrote:



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