In response to Inga Schmidt and Matt Valenic's Geauga County eBird
observations about the current shorebirds being flagged:

As you may or may not know I now review Geauga and Lake Counties on eBird,
Vic Fazio still does review for the entire state but not as much as he had
in the past. Jen Brumfield also reviews Lake county with me as well as
other lakeside counties and scattered counties throughout the state, and
there are other reviewers in other regions of the state. Also there are
some counties that do not have a designated reviewer, so with more people
involved in certain areas this is why you may have noticed a variation of
when certain records get "confirmed" before others, it depends on when each
individual gets to them.

Since I only review 2 counties I asked Vic to adjust the threshold for
flagging (high counts and dates) which had been less stringent due to past
eBird usage and how much one person could keep up with. Vic has a program
that he ran for each species that adjusted its threshold based on past
eBird submissions. He said I could adjust them as some may not reflect
today's observations, species fluctuations, and more/ qualified observers.

So a flagged record does not necessarily mean it is as unusual as it had
been in the past (at least in Lake and Geauga Counties). For instance Matt
reported 100 Cliff Swallows breeding on the bridge at Headwaters Park in
Geauga County this summer which was flagged, although for this spot it is
not unusual, that was the only checklist submitted for Headwaters Park
during the breeding season. So with so few relevant observations for Cliff
Swallows I left the filter in place to catch mistakes such as entering a
count in the wrong column, new birders misidentifying Barn Swallows, or
when entering 10 hitting the 0 twice.

 Also I believe some species could be left flagged when there are similar
species to ensure accuracy such as with Ross's Geese which look similar to
Snow Geese and hybrids do occur.

 Lastly it is always great to include photos with your checklists even when
not flagged, as the photo can benefit eBird in multiple ways.

 Thanks,

 Cory "Chia"



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On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 3:22 PM, Matthew Valenic <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> My October 9th listing of White-rumped Sandpiper at LaDue Reservoir (with
> pictures) was finally accepted today.  Checking eBird bar charts for Geauga
> County I found:
>
> Last sighting for Stilt Sandpiper shows Last Week of September (so, 2 weeks
> later than history)
> Last sighting for Sanderlings shows First Week of October (so, 1 week later
> than history)
> Last sighting for White-rumped Sandpiper goes until the 2nd week of
> November
> (so that one is hard to know why it's flagged).
>
> This is an example of how your eBird checklists can benefit an
> understanding
> of bird movements.  We have many more birders out there today than even
> just
> 10 years ago, and our Citizen Science data is more important than ever.  If
> you are not eBirding, please consider doing so. There are lots of people
> willing to help you get started.
>
> Matt Valencic
>
>
> "It is in giving that we receive."
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Inga
> Schmidt
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2017 2:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Shorebirds geauga co.
>
> Shorebirds, in small numbers, continue at LaDue reservoir. A particular
> surprise was the brief presence of five sanderlings on one of the little
> rocky outcroppings. Took a little more time with the peeps today and found
> one white rumped sp. among them. Still 6 dunlin, a few pectorals,
> yellowlegs
> and another pleasure a stilt sp. (of interest if you use eBird, three of
> these species were flagged: stilt, white rump, and sanderling. Will add
> photos to my list...a bit unnerving to have so many flagged.)
>
> Inga Schmidt
>
> Sent from my iPad
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