Hello all New York eBird users, eBird Records for several counties in downstate New York have recently been re-run through the improved filters. This returned lots of newly flagged entries which were entered before the filters were updated (and so did not trip the filter when they were entered).
The downstate New York eBird review team will be working to get through this new backlog of records as quickly as we can over the next few weeks or months, so that we can get these records, the vast majority of which are undoubtedly correct, back into the public data feed. What this means for you is that if you were lucky enough at any point to see an unusual bird- be it rare for the region, an early or late date, or an unusually high count- then you may at some point receive an E-Mail from a reviewer asking you to confirm the record or supply details, even though the sighting did not trip the filter when you initially entered it into the system. Please bear with us, and do not take any inquiries as personal affronts. We completely understand if you don't remember the exact details of things from multiple years ago that aren't exceptionally rare birds (say, for instance, a Bonaparte's Gull in mid-June at Jamaica Bay from several years ago that didn't trip the filter when you initially entered it). However, for things that you DO remember in any way, or have photos of, any substantive response, will greatly aid us in getting through the load. If you can enter comments in the species comments field that would be exceptionally helpful, as many older records of slightly out of season things have no comments whatsoever, and are therefore very difficult to evaluate. Because all of us are volunteer reviewers, we cannot devote inordinate amounts of time to this, so it may be a while before you hear anything. A very informative article on how the filters work etc. is on the eBird site at this link: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/1055676-understanding-the-ebird-review-and-data-quality-process Thanks for your cooperation, and for your continued contributions to the database, that at this point is very comprehensive for our region, thanks to the volume of reports that you have all contributed over the years! Good (e)Birding! -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
