I am pleased to announce that the *New York State Avian Records Committee*(NYSARC) has completed its review of rare bird reports from 2009. The results will be published in The Kingbird (quarterly journal of the New York State Ornithological Association) at the end of the year and posted on the NYSOA web site shortly thereafter. This is a significant achievement because the review process is finally up-to-date, meaning that we are now reviewing sightings from 2010 in that same year. This is a rare achievement for any records committee.
Catching up from what became a four-year backlog was an ambitious goal and the current and recent members of the Committee are to be commended for their hard and relentless work. As Secretary, Jeanne Skelly has done more than anyone to maintain an aggressive reviewing pace and those lucky enough to know Jeanne will appreciate her ability to 'crack the whip' in the sweetest of ways. As birders, we have reached unfamiliar and exciting territory and some important changes will be needed. Our concern now is that written reports and supporting photographs need to be submitted in a timely manner otherwise the review process will become fragmented and the delays will creep back. *Ideally, materials should be filed within a few weeks of the sighting*. This does not mean observers should compromise on the detail included in their reports. It is advisable to spend a day or two time preparing the description, choosing the most informative photographs and when possible, doing a little research to enrich your report. How does the timing sighting compare to others from the state, region or county? Who first found the bird if it was not you? We strive to include these details in the Annual Report and often rely on information provided by Kingbird Regional editors. This becomes more difficult when we reviewing on a fast track. So far this year we have received 86 reports documenting 53 different sightings; a little below our average for this point in the year and the Committee is aware of many sightings for which we have not yet received anything. We encourage you therefore to think back over the past eight months and prepare reports for reviewable species if you have not done so. We are working with the folks at eBird to provide reminders of NYSARC reviewable species and make it easier to include this important function in your data entry routine. However, please appreciate that providing details to an eBird reviewer is not a substitute for submitting to NYSARC. A list of reviewable species is provided on the NYSOA web site: http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/NYSARClist.htm Advice on submitting reports by email, regular mail or via an online form can be found here: http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/goodreport.htm Many people now use online photogalleries such as Flickr, Picasaweb and Facebook to share photographs and choose to include links in their written reports in lieu of attaching image files. Since these galleries are ephemeral by nature, the NYSARC Secretary much down and archive images to accompany the reports. We are happy to do this but it can be a daunting task. One needs to register to access some sites and more often than not, the relevant photos are buried among others. It takes more time than you would think to sort through someones vacation photos to find the two shots of an interesting tanager. Likewise, galleries may contain tens if not hundreds of images of the relevant bird(s). Should we download, print and archive all of them? We feel very strongly that the observer should decide which of these images best showcase the features used to make an accurate identification. So bottom line: We'd prefer images to be sent as attachments rather than as gallery links but if you do, please provide specific URLs that take us to individual images, rather than collections. This small effort will enhance your report and provide a better record for posterity. We look forward to the continue support of the thriving New York State birding community. All reports are gratefully received and are archived irrespective of the Committee's decision to 'accept' or not. We want the Annual Report to be as complete a record of rare bird sightings during that year as possible and rely on your cooperation to do so. Past reports are can be viewed here: http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/NYSARCActions.html We hope to make an additional announcement about some changes to the review list in the near future. Good birding! Angus Wilson Chair, New York State Avian Records Committee (NYSARC) New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
