My answer to Steve's question would be this. Estimate the number you did see/hear. eBird isn't asking for a complete survey of the area you birded during the time you were there. It asks you to report the number of each species that you identified while you were there. If you are sure Downy Woodpecker was present (maybe because you've identified at least one at that location the previous 99 times you were there) but didn't identify one, do not record Downy Woodpecker on that checklist. Hope this makes sense.
Carlton SchooleyStrasburg (Tuscarawas)
On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, 2:20:27 PM EDT, Steve Cagan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I didn't find the argument in the ebird page entirely convincing, because
they assumed one uses a single X for an unknown number. What some of us
used to do in slightly less automated days was, when we were unsure of
exact numbers, but had a sense, to post X for a handful of birds, XX for
birds in the tens or scores, XXX for birds in the hundreds, XXXX for birds
in the thousands. I never got higher than than :-). Posting like that gave
a sense of order or magnitude without fudging on numbers. I'd still like to
do that if it were available, which it's not, apparently. On a recent trip
to Montana, I tried to post XXX Northern Pintails, and it was rejected, Oh
well, I'll go with what they want...
On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 12:07 PM, Ian Lynch <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thank you for this reminder. What the article didn't answer for me was
> whether it would be better to leave out a common species that I know I've
> encountered on the trip than to include it as an X. Especially on a busy
> migration day I'm sure many of us skip over many abundant species as we
> "look past" them to find the rarities. There are plenty of times that I
> simply am not interested in estimating how many Herring Gulls were around
> while I was checking out the ducks, for instance.
>
> I strive to provide complete lists with counts since I appreciate the value
> of the contribution. Still, there are those days...
>
> Ian Lynch
> Mentor, OH
>
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