The location of my count is ambiguous because the way you have it set up is limited. My zip is in one city in a particular County, but my location is 5 miles from that city and in another County. My address just happens to be in a zip code that's different from my actual location. What do I do under these circumstances, or does it matter?

Hi, my situation is apparently like yours- I live 20 miles away from my little town, though that's where I get my mail. My bird sightings have not much to do with my zipcode, as the elevation here is 1600' higher than my mailbox. One solution, it seems to me, might be including latitude and longitude and elevation...too complicated?

I have the same problem. My zip is 20 miles from my location, which is a totally different habitat! I hate to think that all "my" woodland birds are thought to be living out on the prairie! (or that I'm an idiot). Maybe using some kind of "mapsco" would help pinpoint our true location???? What do ya think?

Use the zip code, postal code, or the name of the place where you observed, not where you get your mail.

David Christie, reviewer

You (Dave Christie) don't understand. They are already using "the zip code, postal code, or the name of the place where you observed" and "where you get your mail." But your database puts the location in the wrong county, because the post office is located in another county. The point you and the database are missing: Zip codes may cross county lines.

I have the same issue. This problem has existed at least since 2006.

Your form is getting too complicated. I even missed the place to list birds I counted. I would like to try again.

Your form is getting too complicated. I even missed the place to list birds I counted. I would like to try again.

Pete Noggle vtech@dodgecity.net

I just have to say thank you for organizing such a wonderful event! I look forward to it and am so excited when I enter my results. Organizing this must be a huge task, and you do a fantastic job! Thanks to everyone who makes this possible!

Linda

Just wondering why you don't have marsh listed as a habitat option (whether for fresh and salt water)? We live alongside a substantial marsh of the Great Bay estuary in NH, and although we are perhaps more influenced by the deciduous woods around us, and are <1/2mile from "saltwater," I would think marsh habitat data would be relevant. No?

The GBBC should also have "BEACH", and do away with local/county park and put "city, county, state, national", with a way to designate which one.

Please add "DUNE".

Hey- wish there was a way to enter windiness as well as snow depth,etc.- it can be a major factor in observations... anyone agree?

The eagle wasn't in my backyard, but was in my area. It flew over the car, swooped down in front of me and picked up a roadkill rabbit...got it about 8 to 10 ft. up and lost it's grip. I stopped the car - flung the rabbit into the field away from the road. Couldn't bear to have the Eagle hit by a car. Usually have camera with me

nada this day. Sat and watched it on a tree limb for several minutes before I drove away.

Hi, I'd like to salute the work of volunteer coordinator Jacques Turgeon in Quebec. Our Trois Rivieres club (COTR) has given him lots of work this year. He has responded with kindness, humility and professionalism. We have had clear pictures of some unusual birds like a hawk-owl and a robin. We have had less clear pictures of a kingfisher and a chipping sparrow. There were no pictures at all of bald eagles, peregrine falcons and hoary redpolls. Each case was investigated and judged on its merits, with patience, in spite of a heavy work load.

I'd like to thank the organizers of the GBBC as well. This activity has been pivotal in the positive re-direction of our club. We were a club united by the bird hotline and the quarterly magazine of local birding. We are now a club structured around the Internet with an e-mail forum, website and activities such as the GBBC. This year our membership submitted more GBBC cards than there are members!

Keep up the good work, Robert Huxley, VP, COTR

Observers should find out the zip code for the area they are seeing birds. I use my zip code for birds in my area, and another zip code for a location I do 17 miles away. Hope this helps.

Just a reminder that if a zip code is a very large area, the GBBC counts all birds in that area wheather if its 20 miles across and a person lives on one side and does the count on the other side. If you live in a zip code and bird in another zip code, use the zip code where your birding. Hopes this helps, too.

I was at Raymond's Store Sunday 2/15 at Northeast Cary in Northern Maine at the top of Moosehead Lake. There were Gray Jays everywhere. They perched next to parked snowmobiles looking for handouts and checked everyone out.

I found your site easy to use and the form was self-explanatory. No problema! My first time participating though I've been birding for over forty years. Dean in Donnelly

I have two identical reports for Feb. 15...one should be deleted. Also my last report shows up as Feb. 15 when it should be Feb. 16.

Dear Sir,

I submitted some sightings for Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur Alabama that included 3 whooping cranes and estimates of about 1000 Sandhill Cranes and 1500 Snow Geese. You should be able to call the refuge office and quickly confirm the numbers for this time of year. There have been up to 5 Whooping Cranes from the eastern migratory flock on and around the refuge all winter. The Christmas Count for the refuge revealed about 4000 Sandhill Cranes and a couple of thousand Snow Geese.

Thanks, Ken Wills email: memontei@aol.com cell (205) 515-9412

YOU DIDN'T COUNT MY GOSHAWKS AND, TWO DAYS LATER, NO ONE HAS CONTACTED ME. I LIVE AT 9100' NEXT TO THE NATIONAL FOREST WHERE THE GOSHAWKS NEST, REPRODUCE AND LIVE--YEAR ROUND. THEY FLY OVER A LARGE AREA HUNTING WHICH OFTEN INCLUDES OUR HOUSE AND MEADOW. ONE TIME LAST SUMMER, THE FEMALE LANDED IN A TREE NEXT TO OUR DECK AND THEN CAUGHT A RABBIT WHO LIVED UNDER OUR DECK. WE WATCHED HER TEAR HIM APART AND STUFF MOST OF THE RABBIT INSIDES INTO HER CROP. SHE BARELY GOT OFF THE GROUND WITH HER LOAD AS SHE FLEW TO HER NEST IN THE NEARBY FOREST.

I would like info on counting murmurations of blackbirds.Icounted grackles in pre roost just before dusk in tree tops . I averaged 100 per tree in 10 trees. I've seen the same mass four days straight and think 1500 would be more accurate. I love watching their swirling formations in flight.

I made observations of two birds that were not on the regional bird list for my area. When can I expect to be contacted by a regional expert?

It is quite common for us to have 100+ goldfinches at our feeders at one time at this time of year, and we occasionally have 150+, as can be seen from our PFW records over the past dozen or so years. When we reported 100+ in last year's GBBC, however, we were the recipients of an idiotic e-mail from one of your volunteer reviewers asking if we had made notes or taken pictures. I was tempted to reply that we had indeed taken pictures and made notes of each and every one of the 100+ goldfinches, and that while the count was accurate, we had misidentifiedf the birds: they were really emporer penguins. I can understand receiving such an e-mail if we reported a very unusual species, e.g., a dickcissel, but not for goldfinches.

For this year's GBBC, we eliminated the possibility of receiving more idiotic e-mails by simply not reporting all the birds we saw. We did report all the species we saw, but we reported counts for three species that were substantially lower than what we actually counted.

As the holder of a Ph.D. in a physical science, I will say that you are doing very poor science when you reject legitimate data because they don't agree with your preconceived ideas of what they should be or they don't fall into a pre-selected range. You will never discover which species are expanding their ranges or greatly increasing their numbers if you keep trying to force your data to fit into compartments previously selected for them.

This is not the first time you have done something like this. For a couple of our early GBBC's (in the 1990s) we reported more than a thousand tundra swans. However, they had been left off the North Carolina list, so they never got recorded by you even though we did report them in the comment section of the reports. Later, you realized that there really were tundra swans in NC in the winter, and we were able to report them in the normal fashion.

To sum up, you need to do a better job of managing your data.

Fred Lobdell

you can not get a picture of everything and what has been reported and even verified with pictures, by a reviewer. those species are not added to the next years state listings.

I can empathize with Fred. I reported 75 pine siskins at my feeders back around 02' or 03' and was promptly informed that I had made a mistake.

In 2005 I moved my GBBC from home here in Western North Carolina to LA - Black Bayou Lake NWR - near where I grew up. That way it served as an excuse to get together with my brother for a visit and some birding.

This year we ran into palm warblers for the first time. I know they over winter in LA & didn't think they deserved special documentation even though my camera was in the truck. It must have been the #s. We ran across two small flocks of palms and I reported a conservative estimate of 20.

I received a (imho) very condescending/patronizing email announcing that I had a typo in my report & meant 2 palms not 20. I responded in a like tone and must have injured the reviewer's ego. The reference to palm warblers was quickly deleted from my report.

Long story short - it took 3 email exchanges - one suggesting that I may have mistaken palm warblers in breeding plumage for American pipits - before I finally received a report form. I filled out the form and returned it but it, undoubtedly was rejected. I guess the #s were too high. Never mind that 105 palms were reported from Oxford MS - from 3 reports. Oxford is inland and even farther north than BBNWR.

Perhaps it would help if GBBC devised a standard email form for questionable reports asking for documentation and offering a report form. That might keep personalities and misunderstandings out of the equation.

Somewhere on this blog Rob Fergus stated that no sightings are deleted. That must be some kind of spin - that the records of sightings are kept somewhere. But there are no palm warblers on the BBNWR report online.

Don Hendershot Waynesville, NC www.smokymountainnews.com