Karen (and others)

Excellent questions!  eBird can often provide a bit more information than
we'd like for things like planning places to stop when traveling cross
country.  This is a good thing in the sense that eBird countains a LOT of
information, but it still doesn't help you plan your trip. ;)

Below is my two cents on using eBird for this purpose plus a little advice
(more of a request) for current eBird users to add comments to checklists.

 ... I am planning a trip to a distant land (another Ohio county) and want
> to find some places along my route to bird. I would like to know WHERE are
> the locals birding and WHAT are they seeing?


The key to things like access information being in eBird is that the
(e)birding community puts it in eBird.  For example, besides checking local
listservs (e.g. via http://www.birdingonthe.net) you can look at eBird
Alerts for specific regions (e.g. counties) if you have particular species
in mind.  If you have an eBird account, you can even get "Needs Alerts"
that tell you what species you haven't seen in that state or county.

To view eBird Alerts: Click the "View & Explore Data" tab at
http://www.ebird.org/ then scroll down to the bottom right.  Click "Alerts"
and follow instructions.  If you have an eBird account, you can set up
email alerts. For example, I use alerts to get emails about rare birds in
OH and birds I haven't seen yet this year in Franklin Co.

And for bodies of water, specifically, WHERE are the public access points?
>  (many bodies of  water seem to be surrounded by private property)
>

This is more difficult. I would probably google those locations/"hotspots"
to find out of local or state birding clubs have directions somewhere on a
website -- eBird doesn't have built-in ways to include things like access
information (yet).

BUT, eBird users could make eBird useful in this manner in two ways:

1. Put comments in checklists.  For example, here's a recent checklist I
submitted for Hoover Reservoir, noting exactly where I was birding from
along the lake shore. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9635204

2. Use personal locations instead of hotspots to give more precise location
information (read more about sub-locations and eBird naming conventions
here http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/hotspots). For example, just
north of Columbus there is a hotspot for "Highbanks Metro Park".  It's a
big park!!  If you only bird around the park visitor center, it's perfectly
fine to create a personal location at the headquarters building, and call
it "Highbanks Metro Park--Visitor Center."  Location names like that can
provide clear hints about specific locations.

Here's a recent checklist where I used a personal location to give a more
specific location than provided by the "OSU--Waterman Farm" hotspot:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9660139


> Is there a specific tutorial for eBird that lists the steps required to
> find birding locations?
>

The first place to look for tutorials and other information is the "About"
tab (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about) -- click it, then check out the
list of links on the right side of the page.  Same area on the main page
also has useful links.

In this case, those links don't tell you how to find birding locations
except for within the context of submitting checklists (i.e. you already
went birding there -- not helpful).  Again, this is partly because eBird
leaves it to someone else to summarize which hotspots are the best to visit
when passing through.

Now, if you target specific species - eBird gets more useful.  Go to the
"Explore Data" page and click on the "Range and Point Maps" link.  Then
pick a common species for the kind of habitat you're interested in -- e.g.
for lakes pick something like Mallard -- then either zoom in to a specific
location or type one in (e.g. Franklin, OH for Franklin Co.).  You might
need to click the "show points sooner" box on the right side of the
screen.  Now, just start looking for clusters of points or hotspots (they
key in the bottom right corner shows how to tell "hotspots" from "personal
locations"). Note that eBird highlights locations where this species was
recently observed in red.

It sounds like you've already tried this approach, and it could be that
eBird just isn't the best place to find a list of "hotspots."  Check with
state and local birding websites if eBird is providing a bit too much
information -- for example, the Colorado Field Ornithologists have recently
put together an excellent website (http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/)
that breaks down all the hotspots for each county and lists places to find
target bird species.  Ohio has similar info on the Ohio Ornithological
Society website and a few other regional pages like the new "Lake Erie
Birding Trail" website
http://ohiodnr.com/Home/LakeErieBirdTrailIndex/tabid/21961/Default.aspx

For planning trips into unfamiliar areas, perhaps letting the locals do the
work of summarizing the best hotspots to visit might be the better way to
go.

Good birding,
Paul Hurtado
Columbus, OH

PS: I should mention I don't work for ebird -- I'm just an (overly?)
enthusiastic fan ;)

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