While essentially a tool for building up databases on local and regional avifaunas for conservation purposes, the proprietors at Cornell mask those ends by making the system very birder friendly. Their efforts along those lines are ongoing and far too many to list here ... please see the Annual Report for a run down on the many new features ... http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/the-state-of-ebird-2008-read-this On Christmas Day that effort took on a whole new level of birder assistance in the form of allowing one to track EVERY single data entry in eBird in real time (or as close to real time as sightings are entered). As mentioned in a December post regarding White-winged Crossbills, up until recently, only rarities could be tracked using one of two means. For example, those familiar with the use of the eBird Google gadget (see above link) already know about the Lark Sparrow in Crawford County seen by Josh Muchow. You also have at your disposal a Google map giving the precise location of the bird, and would know that I have reviewed and accepted this observation as valid (based on notes and a fine photograph supplied by Josh today). Those accessing Jack Siler's eBird map http://birdingonthe.net/gmaps/eBirdMap.html# also have access to this information. Of course, some additional info would be helpful for the January Century efforts out there. Namely the bird is coming to the feeders at the location pinpointed in eBird ... at Josh's parents ... and they welcome birders to view the feeders. I have no further update on the bird than the initial sighting. Now while that system has been in place for rarities for almost a year, species not flagged by the 16 checklist filters presently covering Ohio, were not trackable. That has changed dramatically, and I invite the reader to investigate this capability by visiting http://ebird.org/ and selecting the link to Ohio off the main page (lower right). Presently, the link still brings up 2008 so if you wish to examine something more recent you will need to select the CHANGE DATE button at the top of the page. Otherwise choose a species of interest. For this exercise, I suggest revisiting White-winged Crossbill. You will now automatically be taken to the MAP of the species, the system will do so in a 10th of the time that it took to do so before* (actually practical now using dial up connections), and each data point is interactive. Selecting the data point will bring up the observer, date(s) of the observation, number of birds, and location. If no observer is listed this record was submitted by an archivist. *This still depends on the size of the data set you are calling up. Expect a year's worth of Northern Cardinals to take a minute so targeting your search by a season or a month (just a quick tap of the month heading) will enhance the experience. I would like to believe this can be transformational with regard to online birding. However, there are some notable caveats. With greater transparency there now comes greater responsibility on the part of the eBird contributor. I do what I can to scour non-flagged records for data entry errors ... wrong dates, wrong locations ... the latter all too common. That said, with access to all records by the birding public, it is my hope that anyone suspicious of such discrepancies will bring these to my attention thereby assuring a robust data set. Some of these I have immediate control over and can correct quickly, some I do not and can only bring them to the attention of Cornell. It also begs the question whether to list that Black-headed Gull you saw at East 72nd within the long list of other gulls, or pull it out and pinpoint the bird on the dock of the marina for the benefit of birders. Personally, wherever possible, I map precisely those birds I deem of interest based on the listserver discussion surrounding them (with the SAME CAVEAT that applies to providing precise written directions regarding sensitive species especially where the bird is in a vulnerable position that allows close approach at a diurnal resting site). cheers Vic Fazio State Reviewer - OH, Project eBird http://ebird.org/ Regional Editor, OH-WV-PA, North American Birds http://www.aba.org/nab/archives.html PI: Black-capped Vireo monitoring project, Fort Sill M.R., OK 2007-2011 Lawton, OK PS> While on the ebird home page, you may wish to check out the Yellow-billed Loon pics on the right side of the page. ______________________________________________________________________ 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]