[MASSBIRD] Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, May 30, 2013

[Floyd, Chris]

Big fallout today, my biggest spring day ever at this location. Din of song was amazing. Personal life highs for Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Canada Warbler. I cut down my counts by 2 each on prompting by eBird. I wouldn't be at all surprised with totals of more like 15 and 30, respectively, for the all the birds actually there, not just those I could see and hear.

I was also amazed to be the only birder apparently there for a couple of hours. Davis Noble and Linda Pivacek came in late morning to catch the show, still going strong in spite of the hour.

Three of the four singing Mourning Warblers were seen, at widely separated locations. One of the four, seen with Linda, was singing an odd song, a bit abbreviated with pitch changes that seemed more abrupt than normal to my ear.

Davis reported seeing at least one of the two Hooded Warblers that have been here for some time.

eBird list below (my counts may be a little thin on resident breeders).

Chris Floyd
Lexington
chr...@mitre.org

Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Essex, US-MA
May 30, 2013 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Comments: briefly toward end with Davis Noble and Linda Pivacek
38 species (+2 other taxa)

Mallard 4
Cooper's Hawk 1 bird in display flight over canopy; then perched, calling several single "kecks"
Black-billed Cuckoo 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 6 6 heard calling pee-ur in separate locations and 4 at least visually identified not calling; conservative count; unprecedented for single day in my entire life experience.
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher) 6
Least Flycatcher 2
Empidonax sp. 4
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Red-eyed Vireo 50 din of omnipresent in sanctuary; conservative count
American Crow 4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
House Wren 2
Carolina Wren 1
Swainson's Thrush 3
American Robin 10
Gray Catbird 10
Cedar Waxwing 12
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Mourning Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 8
American Redstart 30
Northern Parula 4
Magnolia Warbler 15
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Blackpoll Warbler 1 singing males probably not heard
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Canada Warbler 18 omnipresent in sanctuary; at least 12 singers heard; at least 6 females seen; conservative count
Wilson's Warbler 8
Eastern Towhee 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Common Grackle 25
House Sparrow 12

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14290205

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

[Glenn d'Entremont]

Chris: I disagree with you changing your numbers. You are cautious and careful and if your count(s) are higher than threshold, then so be it. If we believe we can not better what's happened in the past, there are no precedents.

I am concerned that those of us who systematically count individuals of species seen would get intimidated by the filters in eBird. I have encountered these filters regularly, but looking at the thresholds they are reasonable, but I do not change my number. It is truly a special day to trip these thresholds and I imagine they are based on average(s) in the database. I have not yet been challenged by eBird reviewers, but do expect some feedback as I enter data. I do attempt to include details when it seems apparent, so perhaps these are enough to satisfy the reviewers.

Marshall Iliff has explained these thresholds on these pages in the past. Not sure there is anything new for him to expound here.

Glenn

Glenn d'Entremont: gdentr...@comcast.net Stoughton, MA

[Floyd, Chris]

Glenn,

I agree with your comment that changing my numbers was a mistake, and will likely correct my eBird submission to the original numbers (not a big deal). I made the decision to reduce my numbers in a bit of hurry. Here was my thought process, beginning with just a bit of my personal counting philosophy:

Ideally, bird counts would represent exact totals of separate of individuals observed. But in many instances, they really have to be statistics representing a number of decisions a birder has to make to quantify a complicated set of ambiguous observations, particularly in a cryptic setting like MNHWS. In such circumstances, I usually think of my counts in terms of a range from lowest to highest likely number of individuals accounting for what I observed, and then report the simple mean of those two numbers. In the case of my yesterday's Yellow-bellied Flycatcher observations (both visual and auditory), my range thinking was 6-10, and I reported the middling 8. The eBird prompt got me into the mindset of "what is the minimum number of individuals could conceivably account for your observations," and that number, from my range, was 6. But that statistic is then inconsistent with what I reported for other species, and is therefore not good quantitative science and probably!
not what the eBird designers really want me to do.

I'm an eBird novice and imagine that more experienced users have had to go through similar experiences in the way they report. I'm sure that Marshall has written some good thoughts on this that I look forward to reviewing (I archive for reference most of his messages on such topics).

Thanks for your feedback, Glenn.

Chris Floyd
Lexington
chr...@mitre.org

[lpiv...@comcast.net]

Chris, the initial "flag" from ebird is automatic, so does not consider the current conditions (mega weather-driven migration), and the experience of the observer among other variables. For example,  I  get flagged when I have very large numbers of  Brant here in Nahant. The wintering flock of 450+ is the highest by far in Essex County. I respond to the flag that it IS typical.  
I assume with time, that those counts will be included in the stats and accepted without a flag.
if you have a flag that remains unsupported by you in response, there will be a follow up by ebird volunteer email.     

IMO, a good system of checks and balances by ebird.

Cheers,

Linda

Linda Pivacek, Nahant,
lpiv...@comcast.net

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[Ryan Schain]

All,

Most have already covered the best points here, but please, don't change your counts based on whether or not they trip eBird review filters. These filters are not meant to act as 'guidelines,' just to capture data that may require further review. With all types of electronic data entry, typos are quite common, and multiple times a week birders report counts to eBird with extra digits. Many of these typos are picked up by eBird filters and after an email exchange with users, are rectified.

There was an awesome coastal fallout on 30 May, and obviously many species counts on that date completely blew up eBird filters. This is great! These filters shouldn't spook birders out of reporting a certain number of a certain species, but instead, help birders realize that they may have just seen something special. If you're sure (or have confidently estimated) that you saw a certain number, please, submit it. For example, Marshall Iliff is currently in Maine, and on that same day, 30 May, had over 5000 individual warblers near Biddeford Pool. An epic fallout like that will obviously involve dozens of flagged high counts in eBird...and this means the system is working!

I used to joke that eBird was 'mad' at me whenever a count or species was flagged at the end of my checklist.

eBird isn't mad at you...it's proud of you!

Have a great weekend,

Ryan Schain
Boston
ryans...@gmail.com