> How much trouble would it be to report age classes of raptors? As Blakeman suggests, noting age classes of wintering Red-tails is one of many easy ways for the birding community to contribute to avian science and conservation. But please don't just send this info to the listserv. From a data perspective, posting bird sightings to this listserv is almost completely useless. On the other hand, by taking 2 or 3 minutes at the end of each birding stop to record species, numbers, effort data, and other easy info like raptor age classes, we as birdwatchers can make a lasting contribution to avian science. By far the best way to do this is with eBird (which, by the way, provides a handy and quantitative way to record age and sex numbers during data entry). Some Ohio-birds subscribers are already submitting their sightings to eBird, but far too many listserv posters are posting fairly detailed birding notes (sometimes even with numbers!) that will just be lost in cyberspace. What a waste! When you enter sightings into eBird, they become automatically available for your personal record-keeping. They also go through a data quality review process and become available to Seasonal editors of the Ohio Cardinal and North American Birds. Once your checklist has been submitted to eBird, there is an easy way to email yourself a copy of your species list and forward it to Ohio-birds. Do everyone (and the birds) a favor--if you're taking the time to record your everyday bird sightings anyway, eBird it first. Then forward it to Ohio-birds. www.ebird.org Dave Slager Columbus, OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]