Annual Birding Report for 2016

[Russ Ruffing]

Hi All,

It's been a month and a half since I announced I would not be doing the Annual Report any longer. Since then, nobody has volunteered to take on this project. Please remember that this project can be anything one wants to make of it. I chose to make it a very comprehensive document but at its core it only has to be a lister's report, as it was originally conceived years ago.

The late Harvey Mudd began this project in the1980s to compile and publish the results of the annual MOS listing"competition." The product was a short and simple listing,without comment, and it was published in the MOS newsletter, TheMaryland Yellowthroat. When Harvey stepped down and turned theproject over to Phil Davis, he created the database and added some editorial material to the report. When Norm Saunders took over from Phil, he added additional data categoriesand more editorial content. When I took it over, I expanded it into the Annual Birding Report and added more listing categories, Bird of the Year, and State and County writeups.

If someone is willing to take it over, remember that the original basicintent of this project is simply to compile and publish theannual state and county lists. Perhaps that's not as daunting of a task to potential compilers!

Russ Ruffing


On 11/10/16, Russ Ruffing wrote:

Hi All,

After giving this much thought over the summer and fall months, I've decided to step away from compiling and producing the MOS Annual Birding Report. The past five years have been fun and I trust that the changes that I instituted to the report have been enjoyed by all, but I think it's time to hand the reigns over to someone else who has the time and the interest to continue the report.

I will turn over the full database to the next compiler. Not sure if there is a protocol for picking the next compiler, but when I took it over I simply volunteered to do it and Norm sent me the database and away I went. If the MOS Board wants to be involved in that process, please let me know. Otherwise, if you have an interest in taking over this role, please reply and we'll go from there!

Sincerely,

Russ Ruffing
Woodstock, MD

[Fred Fallon]

On Sunday, December 25, 2016 at 10:12:41 AM UTC-5, Russ Ruffing wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> It's been a month and a half since I announced I would not be doing the Annual Report any longer. Since then, nobody has volunteered to take on this project. Please remember that this project can be anything one wants to make of it. I chose to make it a very comprehensive document but at its core it only has to be a lister's report, as it was originally conceived years ago.
>
> The late Harvey Mudd began this project in the1980s to compile and publish the results of the annual MOS listing"competition." The product was a short and simple listing,without comment, and it was published in the MOS newsletter, TheMaryland Yellowthroat. When Harvey stepped down and turned theproject over to Phil Davis, he created the database and added some editorial material to the report. When Norm Saunders took over from Phil, he added additional data categoriesand more editorial content. When I took it over, I expanded it into the Annual Birding Report and added more listing categories, Bird of the Year, and State and County writeups.
>
> If someone is willing to take it over, remember that the original basicintent of this project is simply to compile and publish theannual state and county lists. Perhaps that's not as daunting of a task to potential compilers!
>
> Russ Ruffing
>
>
> On 11/10/16, Russ Ruffing wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> After giving this much thought over the summer and fall months, I've decided to step away from compiling and producing the MOS Annual Birding Report. The past five years have been fun and I trust that the changes that I instituted to the report have been enjoyed by all, but I think it's time to hand the reigns over to someone else who has the time and the interest to continue the report.
>
> I will turn over the full database to the next compiler. Not sure if there is a protocol for picking the next compiler, but when I took it over I simply volunteered to do it and Norm sent me the database and away I went. If the MOS Board wants to be involved in that process, please let me know. Otherwise, if you have an interest in taking over this role, please reply and we'll go from there!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Russ Ruffing
> Woodstock, MD

Russ - The Annual Report has grown with so many popular features that maybe no one person could manage it all. So why not break the work into pieces - divide the state into 3-4 sections, each with an editor to compile the county-specific lists for those counties. There would still need to be an over-all editor to assemble the pieces, and handle the state-wide lists, but at least that would be more manageable than it is now.

If this were done, and volunteers found to take on such divisions, I would volunteer to take on one of them - Southern MD, say.

Do you think this is worth considering?

[Russ Ruffing]

Fred,

I wasn't able to get volunteers to do all of the county write ups, so I don't see how having regional editors would cure that problem. Every year more and more counties went uncovered and other elements of the report that were contributed disappeared as well. As for the data and tables, I think that trying to have multiple people working on creating the data tables would be problematic. The file is huge and I'd spend more time showing several others how to do it than it would be worth, because it's set up for my particular excel skills (or lack of) to be able to easily use.

For me the data manipulation isn't the problem anyway. When I took over the report, I really wanted to make it something that the birding community would sink their teeth into and support. I've had birders from other states who said they would die to have a comprehensive report like it for their states. To me, just doing a report of lists doesn't interest me. Therein lies the rub. I want to do a meaningful report that is about birds and birding, not just listing. But I need the support to make that happen every year. That support waned and made it more of a frustration for me than something I really looked forward to doing, which is how I felt about it the first couple of years.

Russ

Sent from my iPhone

> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
> To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
> Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html

[Russ Ruffing]

Whoops, that was intended to reply only to Fred.

Russ

Sent from my iPhone

[David Powell]

Russ and the MD Birding community,

First off, I wish to thank Russ for all of his hard work in compiling the MD birding report for the past five years. Apparently no has responded to take over the report responsibilities for this year. And no, I do not wish to do so myself. However, I did have an idea to share with everyone. How about the MD birding report be done individually on the MOS website. Set up a system similar to the ABA organization where the individual birder submits his/her data. Big day, monthly, photo and yard totals can also be listed. I always thought the MOS website should be a collection of data on MD birding if there is room available.

I hope some others with more tech savvy than me can share whether this can be done easily or not. I also ask the MOS leadership to chime in whether there is room or interest in having the list on the website.

Regards,

Dave Powell

seneca...@gmail.com 

Germantown, MD

[Jim Nelson]

Everyone,

 

This is a good idea, but it would need to managed by an organization like MOS. 

 

I actively bird in Colorado as well as here in Maryland.  The Colorado Field Ornithologists (equivalent to MOS here in Maryland) used to produce a quarterly report as a PDF to which Colorado birders could contribute their life list totals (basically “ticks” in birder parlance) for the state, each county, geographic subareas of the state, state current year, and yards, and photographed. Like the Maryland Annual Report that Russ Ruffing has produced the last few years, it took a lot of work by one person.  A couple of years ago the CFO moved to a web-based listing feature similar to what Dave suggests below.  Members get a user id and password to log in and update their list totals at any time, and all the totals can be viewed on the CFO website (here’s the link so you can check it out -- http://cobirds.org/Listing/ ). Some of the list totals are automatically generated from the county lists.  So this also has some similarity to the ABA website’s Listing Central feature.

 

I don’t know what kind of financial commitment is required to host this type of function on a website.  I’m sure the CFO folks would be willing to share information about how they set this up on their website and the associated costs.

 

I noted that MOS has sent out an announcement about a one-day retreat on January 28, open to all, to discuss a variety of issues about MOS’s functions in a variety of areas.  This retreat might be a place to bring up this listing idea.  Unfortunately I will be out of town and can’t attend the retreat.

 

Jim Nelson

Bethesda. MD