Obs record submission - ABR and Grid coverage [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi Benj

I support your ideas and feel that almost
anything, within reason, that promotes more records submissions, is a positive
thing.  Whilst I enjoy seeing the great diversity of species at popular
locations such as Kelly Swamp, Campbell Park, ANBG, I feel that the records
I submit aren't adding as much value as those I could submit if I was to
devote more of my time to less visited places.  Any encouragement
or prompting in this regard would be most welcome.

As an aside, but on the same subject,
I'm camping at the Mt Clear campground and walking to the summit of Mt
Clear this weekend and am excited by the prospect that the grid cell or
cells that I'll be in don't often have records submitted.  Speaking
of which, if anyone has the technology to quickly tell me which particular
grid cell or cells I'll be in, I would be grateful if you could please
send me a personal email with the details.

Matthew Frawley

"Whitworth, Benjamin - BRS" <>

07/08/2007 01:26 PM

To	"Jack and Andrea Holland" <>
cc	"COG list" <>, "Barbara Allan" <>
Subject	[canberrabirds] Obs record submission - ABR and Grid coverage [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Reference
	Expires

I have found the discussion about submitting records useful, as I have
been trying to write up my observations for submitting to COG, plus I
have also been mulling over the Annual Bird Report. Most of the email
discussion has focussed around 'how' to provide submissions, and I would
also like to see an explanation of 'why' (and 'where').

One thing that I was surprised by when going through the ABR was a lack
of grid cells covered by records, outside the ACT, and even within
certain parts of the ACT. Even though observers on the COG email list
have given bird reports from many of the empty grids.

One of the benefits of having reports from each grid cell would be for
input into the National bird Atlas and to enable COG to create reports
like the Bird Atlas of Western NSW, showing variation of birds over
space and particularly over time (noting Philips points of the problems
with records not listing all species, and focussing on bird rich areas).
Another major benefit is for conservation.

To encourage reporting from more grid cells in the AOI I have a few
ideas.
-A 'Grid tick list' website could be set up, almost identical to the
current 'ACT Birders Totals'. People would be ranked by how many grid
cells they have submitted reports for each year.
-As a few people would clearly dominate, to not make it overwhelming,
and to encourage beginners, I would divide the COG Area of Interest
(AOI) into 5 regions, being: SE, SW/Namadgi, Central Canberra, NE, and
NW. So there would be totals lists for each region and a summary for the
whole AOI. Beginners could focus on one of these regions and may get
high up in the ranking of that list (Eg the SE region). While
experienced birders would try to get results from all grids.

I have two ideas for how the grid ticking would operate, observations
could be made from either:
-a) Anywhere in the grid.
-b) from a standard GPS listed (lat and long) site.

a)                
The disadvantage with a) is as Philip mentioned, that high bird
numbers would be targeted, biasing results, or that certain ecosystems
may be targeted (eg woodland, rather than grassland).
b)                
A guy at my work does 'geo-caching' which seems to be like
orienteering, where you race around and try to tick off as many listed
sites (with your GPS) as possible (but in a car). Having standard GPS
listed sites would help greatly with repeatability of observations over
time, particularly if a standard survey design was used (eg 20 minute).
Disadvantages would be that bird observers would be restricted to those
members who have a GPS. Also, somebody from COG would have to visit all
sites first to record lats and longs. Also, a GPS listed site is
unlikely to be in an area of conservation concern, whereas a random
observation 'might' be.

I think this approach (either one) would encourage observations from
more grid cells. To improve grid coverage you could 'weight' certain
grid cells to give more points. I believe this approach would be the
simplest way to increase coverage, for minimal work for COG committee.

Benj
 

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