Tweeters:

While acknowledging some merit regarding Burt's comments about the "subtle
corruption" (and sometimes not so subtle!) of a CBC overdriven to attain a
high species count, I think he went a bit overboard at the end. I'm one of
those that often does the stake-out the day before the count for rarities
and hard-to-find residents (like N. Pygmy-Owl in the Sequim area). Yet, are
these not also a part of the overall snapshot that comprises the count
circle? And who is to say which data is more significant, accurate counts
of common species or observations of rare species? And although it does
happen that observers ignore common species (my favorite pet-peeve through
the years has been undercounts of small forest passerines like kinglets,
Brown Creeper), I believe it IS possible to record the rarities and also
take the time to accurately count some of the common species, given enough
observer effort.

And indeed that is seems to me to be a key point on the CBCs. One could
make a case that the enthusiasm associated with spotting one of those
one-shot rarities, and a small dash of competitive spirit--has greatly
increased the popularity of some CBCs and winter birding in general over the
years. One could further make the case that increased observer effort has
led to increased accuracy in detecting certain less-common species, which,
frankly, seem to have been overlooked previously.



Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com








>From: "Guttman, Burt" <GuttmanB at evergreen.edu>
>Reply-To: GuttmanB at evergreen.edu
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: The purpose of doing CBCs
>Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 17:41:02 -0800
>
>As we approach CBC season again, I think it's important to take a
>collective
>look at ourselves and ask just what we are doing in these winter
>adventures.
>Dennis Paulson once wrote a wonderful essay about this on Tweeters, and I
>saved it, but can't find it now. Maybe Dennis would like to send it again.
>Since I haven't read Dennis's essay recently, I won't want to pretend to be
>reflecting his views; this is just from me.
>
>My concern arises when one of our fellow Tweets writes, "Please plan to
>join
>us [on a local CBC], as we try to build on our 104 species count last
>year."
>Let me emphasize that I don't know the writer and that this isn't a
>personal
>issue. I chose to respond to that sentence because it reflects a disturbing
>attitude--that CBCs are just another variety of Birdathon or Big Day or
>some
>other birding event where the purpose is competition, both competition with
>previous counts and with other CBCs. But CBCs are supposed to a kind of
>research event--granted, rather informal and even somewhat sloppy research,
>but research nevertheless. Their functions are to provide information
>about
>migration, wintering patterns, perhaps patterns of eruption of northern
>species, and also the condition of the local environment. The same message
>I'm quoting here went on to say, "Our counts are not only about birds, but
>networking with kindred spirits and monitoring the condition of our
>environment and bird habitat over time." And I applaud that. That's
>exactly right:
>"monitoring the condition of our environment and bird habitat over time."
>But if people organize CBCs with the primary thought that "we've got to
>beat
>our old record" or "we've got to beat the guys in the neighboring area,"
>the
>event gets subtly corrupted. That's the attitude that makes people go out
>for days before the event to find and stake out unusual species so they can
>be counted on the official day. It makes people spend their time trying to
>pick up particularly "good" birds in special areas rather than trying to
>get
>a broad count of the more ordinary birds, so someone can eventually compile
>results, calculate individuals per person-mile, and draw some conclusions
>about the behavior of the birds. Please remember that it's the behavior of
>the _birds_ we're interested in, not the behavior of the _birders._
>
>Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
>The Evergreen State College
>Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
>Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503
>


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