Dear Tweeters,
The "Explore Data" tools of eBird offer much of interest, but sometimes the data can present as many questions as they do answers. 
I just noticed that Whatcom County's best spot for American Redstarts shows only eight records of the American Redstart. This spot is the Newhalem Agg Ponds, way up in the Skagit Valley. The 8 eBird records for American Redstart at Newhalem Agg Ponds that do show up are all dated between 7-01-2019 and 6-07-2020. This can be seen by doing a "Species Map" for AMRE and zooming in to the Newhalem area. There are lots of other sightings from the area near the Agg Ponds, but the hotspot itself shows only those eight sightings.
Meanwhile, if I go to "My eBird" and look up my own personal sightings of American Redstarts at the Newhalem Agg Ponds--which is a "public hotspot"--I see that I myself have seen the species 12 times at Newhalem Agg Ponds. None of those sightings show up on the "Explore Species" map. Moreover, on at least some of those visits to the Agg Ponds, I was birding with other birders who also use eBird. I would expect to see those other birders' sightings of this species on the "Species Map," but those don't show up, either. Hmmm...
I'd love to hear an explanation of this apparent "eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap!"
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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