Tweeters,

Shortly after posting the attached message to OBOL, I read Tom
Schooley's message to TWEETERS about the GBBC. In addition to the
Wrentit and Black-chinned Hummingbird reports questioned by Tom, I am
skeptical of the 7 Ospreys and 7 Rufous Hummingbirds reported in
Washington.

If the results of the GBBC are to be taken seriously, I would
recommend that statewide or regional editors are needed, with the task
of either getting further documentation for unusual sightings, or
removing them from the list if no documentation is forthcoming.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at home.com

----- Original Message -----
From: WAYNE WEBER <contopus at home.com>
To: OBOL <obol at bobo.nws.orst.edu>
Cc: MIKE PATTERSON <celata at pacifier.com>; WES STONE
<wes_stone at altavista.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 12:45 AM
Subject: GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT: DUBIOUS RESULTS


> OBOLinks,
>
> Thanks to Wesley Stone for pointing out that it is possible to find
> out the exact locations from which various bird species were
reported
> on the Great Backyard Bird Count. However, when I clicked on the
link
> which Wesley provided, which gave a list of all the locations from
> which Rufous Hummingbirds were reported, I noted some disconcerting
> reports:
>
> Bellevue, WA 5
> Seattle, WA 2
> West Vancouver, BC 1
> Vancouver, BC 1
>
> I suggest that all of these birds were in fact misidentified Anna's
> Hummingbirds. At Vancouver, Rufous Hummingbird has only been
reported
> once before March 1st, and the mean arrival date is March 20. I
doubt
> that they are much earlier in the Seattle area.
>
> Without knowing who the observers were, it seems quite likely that
> some of the Oregon reports of Rufous Hummingbird-- especially those
> from the Willamette Valley-- could refer to misidentified Anna's
> Hummingbirds as well.
>
> As further evidence of dubious results appearing in the GBBC, I
> skimmed the totals for all species for Washington State, They
included
> 7 Ospreys on 7 counts (very unlikely); 4 Wrentits on 3 counts (never
> recorded in the state); and 2 Black-chinned Hummingbirds on one
count
> (exceedingly unlikely).
>
> I have no doubt that the vast majority of birds on the GBBC were
> correctly identified. However, since many of the observers were
> inexperienced, and since (unlike the Christmas Bird Count) there
seems
> to be no process for editing and removing questionable sightings
from
> the database, I have very little confidence that the GBBC has any
> scientific value whatsoever.
>
> In particular, without knowing who the observers were that reported
> Rufous Hummingbirds, or having some method of independently
verifying
> that these identifications were correct, I would question the value
of
> the GBBC in documenting early arrivals of Rufous Hummingbird.
>
> Wayne C, Weber
> Kamloops, BC
> contopus at home.com
>
>