Regarding eBird flags, I will play Devils Advocate. Tripping the filter does not imply "rejection" (Derek's word) or dislike (Dave's word) on the part of eBird. Flagged observations are almost certainly welcomed by the eBird team as these unusual observations represent NEW knowledge about bird populations, and eBird is all about characterizing bird populations. Observations that are not flagged add little to current knowledge (but are nonetheless valuable). When I go birding, I like to trip the eBird filters because I know these flagged observations are contributing to NEW knowledge of bird populations.
EBird is improving with time. I'm glad the filter caught the early Turkey Vulture. Surely Dave's comment in response to the flag will convince the local reviewer to accept this noteworthy observation. If Derek also eBirded his early tV observation, and if others did as well, and these early reports prove to be more than an anomaly, the filters will eventually be altered to reflect the new reality. However, as Dave points out, the real anomaly -the misplaced Marsh Wren- was missed by eBird as being unusual. This is because the man-made filters are by necessity regional, referring to an entire County, or part of a county. Eventually, I believe that eBird will be able to convert to site-specific computer-generated filters. If a filter is tripped when an observation is rare (say, with 5% probability or less), and there are 100 checklists submitted per week for a site (roughly 5000 checklists total), then there would be enough data for the computer to determine which observations are unusual for each week. Currently, Grandview Cemetery has 635 checklists. So the moral of the story is this: if you don't like the man made filters in eBird, submit more complete checklists to eBird. If we all did this, we could convert to an unbiased computer-generated filter system sooner rather than later. Nick Komar Fort Collins CO Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 15, 2017, at 7:19 PM, Derek Hill <derektheh...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > eBird should probably not reject your Turkey Vulture sighting. I was standing > in the yard in Fort Collins approximately 5:17pm on Thursday 9 March 2017 > when a big dark teetering bird cruising at quite low altitude caught my eye. > It was my FOS TV and I was a bit surprised to see this bird so early. I > wasn't sure if it was early or 'on time,' as I'm used to seeing them year > round back home. I bet our birds, Dave, claimed the primo roost spots in > FOCO. Early bird gets the worm(shaped roosting limb). > > Don't forget to check battery level and presence of memory card before > birding! I'm sure your MAWR photos would've been great. One day, maybe photos > will instantly be lifted to cloud storage as they're taken. > > Good birding and happy springtime, > > Derek Hill > Fort Collins > kingle...@yahoo.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/95940295-a163-47c9-9908-165419d1a9b6%40googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/76183434-F60A-4FAB-821A-EC7D8E241E9C%40comcast.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
