Bob Boekelheide wrote:
> Another contribution that all of us can make to the bird world is to
> actually go out and collect some data about the birds that we see
> everyday, above and beyond just putting our sightings into "lists." Is
> there a body of water out there (or some other habitat) that you can
> census regularly over several years, to track changes in populations over
> time?

A small portion of Puget Sound, for example? Maureen Ellis has been posting
great summaries of her visits to the Des Moines marina. Cliff Drake, likewise
at Ballard Locks. My own posts on Olympia's East Bay have been fewer and
farther between this winter, but my surveys continue.
These kinds of projects do not require advanced training--just attention to
detail, careful record keeping, and devotion. Long-term monitoring ought to be
done in a way that it carries beyond the boundaries of "your" specific project.
The University of Washington and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
have put together a program called NatureMapping, which allows people to submit
data to a cooperative, accessible system. Michael Brown was among early
NatureMappers with his students, and I'm sure other Tweeters participate.
If someone is just starting out with a monitoring project (or even if they
have been doing one for years), a little organization can do wonders over the
long term. After 4 years of waterbird surveys at East Bay, for example, I
realized I was just inches away from collecting my data in the fashion required
for the Winter Bird Population Study. This year, I modified my methods to allow
results to be submitted to WBPS, for eventual publication in the Journal of
Field Ornithology. Now, my little corner of the world can be compared to others
similar to it (if anyone else has surveyed an urban estuary).
Black Hills Audubon Society is about to publish a handbook/training manual
that will help beginning birdwatchers and advanced birders to take on this kind
of "monitoring with a purpose." The free publication will become available at
the end of the month. Tweeters interested in a copy should let me know, and I
will plan to get one to you.
--
Scott Richardson
northeast Seattle
salix at halcyon.com
http://www.halcyon.com/salix/