{"id":523,"date":"2012-10-21T21:25:25","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T01:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/?p=523"},"modified":"2012-10-21T21:25:25","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T01:25:25","slug":"ebird-reporting-giant-swallowtail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/2012\/10\/21\/ebird-reporting-giant-swallowtail\/","title":{"rendered":"eBird Reporting; Giant Swallowtail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maine Birders Rock!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have written several times in this column about the value and utility of eBird (www.ebird.org<\/a>).\u00a0 This online resource is a powerful way to share bird sightings with the world at large.\u00a0 eBird can be valuable if you are planning a trip to an unfamiliar location.\u00a0 The data in eBird are used by ornithologists and environmental managers in research.\u00a0 Finally, eBird makes it easy to maintain your various life lists.\u00a0 You can see your World life list, life list for any country, state or county.\u00a0 The lists can be produced for a single year or for all of your birding lifetime.\u00a0 Want to see how many species you saw in York County in 2009.\u00a0 No problem \u2013 eBird will search your records and provide your list.<\/p>\n

The eBird personnel commonly report the number of eBird records submitted from various states.\u00a0 It is no surprise that California and Texas usually lead these lists.\u00a0 These states have very large populations.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hutchinson, a birder from Texas, takes issue with these lists.\u00a0 He points out that the number of eBird records standardized by state population size or area would be much more informative.\u00a0 He did that analysis and shared his results on the Texas Birds listserv.<\/p>\n

He first calculated the number of eBird records per one million people in each state.\u00a0 The most intensively birded state: Alaska with 3,376 records per million residents.\u00a0 And taking the silver medal is Maine with 1,448 records per million residents.\u00a0 California and Texas are relatively poorly birded with 184 and 332 eBird records per million residents.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson suggests that Alaskans and Mainers are probably more nature-conscious than populations from states with large urban centers.<\/p>\n

Jeff extended his analysis by standardizing eBird reporting for the size of the state.\u00a0 Maryland has the most eBird records per 1000 square kilometers (152), New Jersey is second (105) and Massachusetts is third (99.\u00a0 Maine finishes a respectable tenth with 51 records per 1000 square kilometers \u2013 not bad considering the low population density of our state.\u00a0 Alaska plummets to the bottom with only 1.4 records per 1000 square kilometers in that huge state.<\/p>\n

Finally, Hutchinson combined the two ways of standardizing the data into a single measure that takes into account both human population size and state or province size.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit like comparing apples and oranges but the idea has merit.\u00a0 By his combined approach, Alaska is the most intensely birded state as measured by eBird records.\u00a0 The next four are Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine.<\/p>\n

This interesting analysis indicates that Maine birders have embraced the eBird technology to a greater degree than birders in most other states.\u00a0 Furthermore, we are out in the field a lot.\u00a0 And why not?\u00a0 We have a marvelous bird fauna to observe and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Giant Swallowtails<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am one of the coordinators of the Maine Butterfly Survey, a seven-year project to map the distribution of butterflies in Maine.\u00a0 This year, we have reason to expect an influx of an usual butterfly into the state.\u00a0 The Giant Swallowtail has been seen widely in Massachusetts and Vermont this summer and we now have a few records for Maine.\u00a0 There is only one previous record of the species in Maine.\u00a0 If you see one of these large, spectacular butterflies, please send me an email.<\/p>\n

The Maine Butterfly Survey requires documentation of any sighting before we accept the record.\u00a0 Photographs are perfectly fine means of documentation.<\/p>\n

Giant Swallowtails are distinctive butterflies.\u00a0 Black Swallowtails are the most likey species with which they might be confused.\u00a0 The crossing of the yellow bands on the forewings of a Giant Swallowtail (making an X) does not occur with the two separate yellow bands of a Black Swallowtail.\u00a0 The underwings of the Giant are mostly pale yellow while the Black Swallowtail underwings are mostly black with a row of orange spots.<\/p>\n

[First published on August 19, 2012]<\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maine Birders Rock! I have written several times in this column about the value and utility of eBird (www.ebird.org).\u00a0 This online resource is a powerful way to share bird sightings with the world at large.\u00a0 eBird can be valuable if you are planning a trip to an unfamiliar location.\u00a0 The data in eBird are used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[428,129],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}