At roughly the half way mark for the CBC season I trust everyone has had a rewarding season .... and for those yet to come hopefully more clement weather will be the order of the day. If last year is any guide Ohio will field 1700+ observers on more than 60 counts ... one of the more intensive efforts nationwide for the area involved. Even so, mapping bird distribution across 60 some circles is a relatively coarse approach. Within the data set are many more party checklists, perhaps 10, 20, 30, .. or more on a count, and within those party checklists, perhaps 2 or 3 discrete sites ... parks, cemeteries, lakes, etc. I would like to suggest to you that this fine grain information need not be lost within the collective. I would like to see a day when these local checklists find their way into eBird. In my own practice, the portion of a circle may well encompass several discrete areas ... for each I keep a separate checklist. However, I understand this may not apply to everyone. Where the information cannot be broken out by a specific wildlife area, pond, or park, I enter a checklist for a given township. This should work for most of you, although I am sure a few party checklists will overlap 2 or more townships. To the extent practical, I am only asking that you consider leveraging the power of your Christmas Bird Count effort by taking this extra step. And for those species considered by your CBC compiler as rare, perhaps it would be appropriate to pinpoint the exact location ... the likes of Gray Catbird, Eastern Phoebe, - or Short-eared owls over a specific CRP parcel, mapped over time may tell us something about winter habitat selection, or the value of a land parcel within the context of a management program. There are far too many examples to list here of what this information can mean for increasing our understanding of Ohio's birds ... knowledge directly applicable to conservation efforts. If you have some doubts about that, please contact me privately. For your consideration ... please make your effort realize its full potential. Holiday cheers ... and wishing you the very best in 2009. Vic Fazio Lawton, OK ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]