> My understanding of the Great Backyard Bird Count is that for me to report
> birds on the dates for the GBBC, I would need to see them in my own yard.
> Therefore, if I saw the Great Tailed Grackle, the northern Hawk Owl or Snowy
> Owls other than in my own yard, I could not count them......
> Betty
> Chimacum, Wa

Betty, from what I've heard, people are going all over the place to do these
counts - nearby parks, perhaps even places chosen for their bird diversity.
Even that, I suspect, is caused by people wanting to turn in a more
impressive count (and have a nice outing), rather than the underlying
premise of having comparable counts year after year. If you look at the
number of counts in WA with water birds on them, not knowing any more than
that, it might make you suspicious that many counts weren't performed in
backyards (or there are an awful lot of wealthy birders living on lakes and
the seashore!). For example, 244 counts tallied Mallards, out of a total of
somewhere not much above 1000 counts - all those counts were made on the
water, and I can't imagine that 20% of the birders who submitted counts live
on the water (a few counters might have seen Mallards flying over). But
perhaps I underestimate what nice backyards Washington's birders have!

I don't think you can wander about to do the count, but it seems as if you
can go to a nice birdy place other than your own yard to do so.

After I wrote all that, I went to the site and looked around a bit, and
there it was, right in the introduction: "It doesn't matter whether you
identify, count, and report the 5 species coming to your backyard feeder or
the 75 species you see during a day's outing to a wildlife refuge."

Given that, I question the value of these counts even more than some of
those who were writing on tweeters! Now it seems as if you *can* wander
about to do your count. I'd think they were of much greater value if they
were in fact just in peoples' yards. In fact, I'll go on record to say that
having people count birds anywhere they want to for this endeavor is much
more for fun and games (and PR?) than it is for science (or its supposed
goal, conservation).

Thanks for responding. I'm sending a copy of this post to tweeters, where
it all started.

Dennis
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115