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<p>Louise,<br>
<br>
Back when I was first starting to use eBird I asked this specific question<br>
about my checklists. Specifically - "when do you report (count) a bird?"<br>
and gave the example of my backyard feeder and the fact that I could<br>
see birds coming and going ... but suspected - highly - that some/many<br>
of them were 'repeats' and had been there as short a time ago as only a<br>
few minutes.<br>
<br>
The answer I got was "if you don't know for certain it is the same bird -<br>
count it". So even if you have a group of say 10 finches that are coming<br>
and going from your yard/feeder - the advice is to count them "every time<br>
you see them that you, personally, can't say it is the same bird".<br>
This advice is not just about birds in our backyards. And Cornell<br>
doesn't consider it "over counting" (probably because you will also<br>
miss many birds that might visit your backyard when you do something<br>
as seemingly insignificant as just getting another cup of coffee).<br>
There are similar considerations for 2 or more people all seeing and<br>
reporting the -same- bird ... perhaps even birding together.<br>
<br>
So here is my take/interpretation of this advice. As long as everyone is<br>
using pretty much the same methods - it doesn't matter ... because <br>
what the science is about is the changes - over time and even over<br>
relatively long periods of time. Such as from one season to the next or<br>
one year to the next or one decade to the next.<br>
We all know about events such as "irruptions" and "long term trends"<br>
etc. <br>
<br>
===> If we have lots of data (reports) then it all averages out in ways<br>
that wouldn't be true for just a few reports (total number of<br>
checklist). <br>
<br>
But there -are- lots of checklists being done in all kinds of situations.<br>
So report what you can ID and let the citizen science work out what it<br>
means. Even reports such as "Gull, species" are valuable/useful -<br>
especially when compared to no reports at all?<br>
- Jim in Skagit</p>
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