If one reads between the lines at the Cornell site, it is clear
that only a fairly selective subset of birds is of interest (ie winter
finches) and the rest has been sort of tacked on I suspect to attract
participants. Many birders do seem to need a competition before they'll
contribute. When I started doing the math regarding those contributing,
it appears that there are many more participants then we can account for
in the birding community. This implies a level competence that is
pretty low. Without a mechanism for training these novice observers this
is unlikely to improve.

I don't have a problem with sponsoring an event aimed at celebrating
the joy and fun of watching birds. I do have a problem with calling it
science or even scientifically useful data collection.

A more meaningful way to contribute data would be to take advantage of
http://birdnotes.net . One can post yard lists, walks in the park, day
trips to wildlife refuges and, because the data is stored by individual
site day after day, place by place it produces a much more useful data
set and a cleaner picture of trends.

And if you're one of those folks who just has to have a competitive reason...
work at compiling a site list that has the all the rare and unusual species
in context. Then ask the next question: what properties make this site
so attractive to vagrants (Malheur NWR, Oceanshores, Iona)?

Netta Smith wrote:
>
> 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

--
Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
celata at pacifier.com by an unkind establishment,
you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html