I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study. – Ezra Cornell
Serious birdos need some means of recording their observations, preferably in a form that will spit out life lists, state lists, patch lists, backyard lists, birds seen out of the toilet window lists and a few more. Gazing at these lists will give them hours of pleasure especially if they are bigger than their frenemies.
Universities need data. This can be time consuming, tedious and costly to accumulate. So here’s the deal. We’ll keep your lists (on-line) for free and throw in an app that will help you get your ID’s right. You can use it on your laptop and/or your mobile device. So saith Cornell University of Ithaca, New York, USA, founded in 1865 (and at last they’ve done something useful).
But here’s the catch – you’ll have to do it our way.
The database is eBird. You access it through your web browser plus you can enter your observations on the mobile app available wherever you get your apps. The ID assistant is Merlin also downloaded to your mobile device. There is enough functionality in the mobile apps to go on working when there is no service. Essential for birding in Australia.
Off you go into the bush. Start your list. The app will track location and duration of the session. Input the species as you go. Upload the lot when you’re finished. If you have a target species looking it up in Merlin will give you pictures, a distribution map and in most instances recordings of its calls. All this information comes from those who went before you. You are standing on the shoulders of giants.
So far so good but doing it their way means taking a fine grained approach to location, counting birds – yes they want the numbers and writing notes to justify some of your observations. If you are really lucky and see something truly rare a moderator will take the fun out of it with naked skepticism – by email. Try not to be too precious – I console myself by checking where they are in the top 100. To date way behind me!
Cornell make it pretty easy to get up to speed via that other university – YouTube …
What of the data that Cornell gets in return? That’s their problem but its also a riveting topic among birdwatchers. Imagine a roomful of introverts who can barely make eye contact getting heated about the uselessness of the lists that some morons submit. Fortunately these discussions, as fiery as they may be, don’t last long, we’d all rather be home comparing our positions in the top 100.
But more on that another time.
bobmcgee 