To quote a recent post on this listserve:

"North American ornithology already has a lot more data than any comparable
discipline, certainly in terms of phenology and distribution, and I am
reluctant to jump on any of the many bandwagons enlisting birders to
accumulate still more. Enough is enough, and we don't need to know where
every robin is during every moment of its life these days."

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I suspect that few
ornithologists or conservation biologists would agree with that sentiment.
Certainly I can't agree with it, based on my work on bird distribution.  In
compiling graphs of seasonal bird occurrence for various regions, and in
drawing and revising range maps for every North American species of bird, I
have been (A) frustrated at the major gaps in available data and (B) amazed
at how the picture is constantly changing.  Bird distribution in North
America is incredibly dynamic, with ranges expanding and contracting and
shifting, populations increasing and decreasing, migration routes shifting,
timing of migration changing.  Even if we knew every detail of bird
distribution today -- which we don't -- it wouldn't take away the need for
gathering data tomorrow, because we don't know how things are going to
change.

I encourage all birders to affirm the value of their observations and to
continue reporting data to the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II, the Christmas
Bird Count, e-Bird, the Breeding Bird Survey, raptor migration counts,
special one-species efforts such as the Bald Eagle and Rusty Blackbird
surveys, and other cooperative monitoring projects.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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