Having been on tweeters only one year, my questions may have been hashed

over many times in the past. If this is the case, please reply to me
privately.

I have been wondering about something--could someone enlighten me?

On the NAS statement about the CBC under the title "WHY" they say "Birds

are indicators of the overall health of our environment. Christmas Bird
Count data over time in any given area can provide valuable insight into

the long-term health of bird populations and the environment".

My question: Does the manner in which the count is done provide the
needed
information accurately enough?

I will use our CBC as an example. I am told that there was one year that

there were only 6 people to cover 177 square miles. That is 29.5 square
miles person. Last year there were 16, this year it appears there will
be 10. Last year there were 81 in the Seattle CBC that is 2.18 square
miles per person.


How can a pattern be established when any given area is not getting
*approximately* the same coverage. How is "valuable insight into the
long-term health of the bird populations and the environment"
established when all the area is covered one year--half another and hit
and miss another?

In my "newbie" way of thinking--wouldn't it be a little more accurate to

have a more consistent number of people for any given area?

What if there was a website that had all the CBC locations and dates in
WA and other ajoining states, (opps and Providence's) and people could
click on any given area that they wanted to go to for the CBC. The site
would be continusly updated (interactive?). This would give everyone a
chance to see how many people were going to each area and when. On a
VOLUNTEER basis, someone may see that the area they were going to had
enough people and could change to another area that had very few people.

Please notice that I did say Volunteer.

Sandy and I have run some numbers from last years CBC and if you want to
see it go to:

http://homepage.usr.com/c/composites/48071.shtml

It would be interesting to have 10 people do an area, and have 40 other
people do the same area at the same time to see the difference in
numbers of species and total counts.

Okey I am finally done. Fire away.

Jerry Converse
Grand Coulee, WA