Taking nothing away from the comments on Ebird and county boundaries, when Frank Caruso, Ann Marie Wood and I observed the Scissor Tailed Flycatcher this morning, it twice forayed south of Highway 24 - once by at least 150 feet - before returning to perch on the telephone wires on the north side and when I just entered an observation using that marker on Ebird it came up in Franklin County.? A photo of the bird in flight taken as it flew away from us south of Hwy 24 is included in that Ebird report.

From: Matthew Dufort <matt.dufort at gmail.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2016 8:42 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Scissor-tailed Flycatcher continues, Friday eve [12 Aug] - and a county lister question for the group!

Phil et al.,
eBird is not a good source for these kinds of boundaries.? The maps that eBird uses to determine counties, states, etc.?have many known and unknown?boundary issues.? Points that are obviously in one county or state on a map sometimes show up as the bordering one.? The eBird folks are aware of this.? When I last corresponded with them about it, they said that they were using the best GIS layers available, but that even those best layers have inaccuracies.
That said, I don't know what the county line is at this spot.
Matt DufortSeattle

On Friday, August 12, 2016, Philip Dickinson <pdickins at gmail.com> wrote:

If you plotted the point in ebird, ebird would identify the county - although I have seen errors in the past.
Phil DickinsonLake Stevens

Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 12, 2016, at 7:32 PM, Matt Bartels <mattxyz at earthlink.net> wrote:


After battling west-side traffic, it was great to arrive at the Scissor-tailed spot and enjoy great looks.Chuck Jensen also was present, and the two of us watched the bird from ~5:00 - 5:30 [Chuck longer after that, after I left][directions to the spot down at the bottom, after a county-lister diversion]
And a request for help from a county lister:
Anyone have definitive maps for where the Adams / Franklin county line falls along SR 24 here? It almost certainly doesn?t run right down the road [as shown in DeLorme and probably in eBird ] - but is is just north or just south of the road? Is this an Adams Co or a Franklin Co bird? And if we know where the line is officially, it would be helpful to know whether anyone saw the bird flying far enough afield to be seen in both counties. It is a county first no matter where it is ?
The power poles are along the north side of the road, and while I watched, all its flycatching was done on the north side of 24 -?
I?m sure there are no shortage of maps on line - this one appears to show the bird in Franklin Co if you zoom in:https://www.maptechnica.com/county-map/Franklin/WA/53021
If anyone wants to weigh in [on or off list] w/ info on the definitive boundary, I?d love to hear it.

John?s directions, below, worked like a charm ?

From:?"Bruce LaBar" <blabar at harbornet.com>
Subject:?[Tweeters] Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Date:?August 10, 2016 at 3:22:18 PM PDT
To:?"Tweeters" <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>

John Puscock just called me and asked if I would post his finding of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher near Othello. He just found it on Hwy. 24, 10-11 miles west of Othello. On wires with Western and Eastern Kingbirds. He said that it was approximately 5 poles west of milepost 68. Near here is the intersection of Hwy. 24, Hart and Hendricks road. Also there is a irrigation canal near here that goes under the road. Few places to park off Hwy.?Bruce______________________________ _________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters


Best,Matt BartelsSeattle, WA

______________________________ _________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters



_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters