this is to misunderstand the role of hotspots and their use in science.
scientists are looking at species over much wider areas than just one or a
few hotspots. in this context hotspots are non-random sampling points.
any scientific statement about a species population (occurrence; density)
for an area would have to take into account the density of hotspots in that
area, the frequency of reports on each hotspot, along with other habitat &
and such variables.

hotspots are themselves highly non-random and hence non-scientific. some
hotspots cover definable areas (like the UBNA) that may include multiple
discrete habitats, while others are simply geographic coordinates for a
place birders have found productive. there is from a scientific
perspective no rhyme or reason to the identification of hotspots as
individual locations, but as a collective set of data points covering a
separately identified (by a scientist researching a specific question)
area, they provide a time-series and wide-area picture of great value.

and a key element of that value is the occurrence of a species by season.
eBird bar charts are organized for occurrence by week of the year. in the
end, "flooding" a hotspot only makes inherently non-random data even less
non-random, which is to say statistically biased in hard to determine
ways. starting a new hotspot in an area with few of them could, on the
other hand, be beneficial to the comprehensive data set.

Chris Kessler,
Seattle

On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 11:29 AM Joey McCracken <joemccracken3 at gmail.com>
wrote:


> Hi everyone, I've got an idea for those on eBird. What if we were to find

> an eBird Hotspot in the area with not too many checklists or species and

> then for the next week we try and get as many species as possible for that

> location and we will change the location every week. We could really fill

> in some missing data and maybe find some rarities in places that are not

> well birded. It's just an idea for now but if you all want to do it maybe

> we can start at Brierwood Park <https://ebird.org/hotspot/L7009887> just

> south of Alderwood. Happy birding!

> -Joey McCracken

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>



--
"moderation in everything, including moderation"
Rustin Thompson
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