[Tweeters] Old e-Bird Sightings

[Doug Santoni]

Tweeters — Perhaps this brilliant group of birders will have an answer to this question, before I make this suggestion to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology...

Is there any way when e-bird alerts are sent out that recent (i.e., TODAY’S) sightings can be boldfaced, italicized, underlined, or in some way made distinguishable from sightings that are a day or more old?  Wouldn’t it be nice if recent sightings were easy to distinguish from those that occurred in the past (especially when the bird is gone).

I keep seeing reports about the Seattle Long-eared Owl that was present for one day only (Halloween), even though several days have passed.  Maybe it’s just an annoying Halloween prank, but I fear I’ll be seeing reports about that same Halloween Owl until Christmas!  

I know it’s not a prank, though, because it happens pretty often.  It seemed that for three weeks or more after the Seattle Ross’ Gull (also a one-day wonder) was eaten by an eagle, it still kept showing up on the e-bird alerts.  Of course, all of the actual sightings had occurred on that one (long past) day.  

Even if records like this showed up, perhaps they could be shown in some kind of “secondary” status relative to birds that are present NOW and probably still alive.  I’d rather look at the e-bird alerts and quickly be able to see those sightings that are most recent and relevant.

If anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful.  (And I’m sure that Long-eared Owl will show up in my e-bird alerts overnight!). Thanks.

Doug Santoni
Seattle, WA
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