[obol] How many lists ... and MidValley birding list

[Joel Geier]

Hello folks,

I answered Judy's original question directly, but since there seems to 
be continued curiosity, here is a reply for the whole OBOL list:

The MidValley birding list (www.midvalleybirding.org) is the result of 
an informal e-mail list for local sightings, which started off as an 
informal, "reply-all" chain of e-mails. The center of gravity is more or 
less in Corvallis, and most reports come from Linn/Benton County or 
close nearby.

When the list grew to over 30 members, eventually someone (Jim Norton, a 
Corvallis photographer who was interested in birds) joined and 
volunteered to set up a list-serve. The list runs on exactly the same 
software as OBOL. It generates archives just like OBOL, which have been 
a great convenience for me as the local fieldnotes compiler (for Audubon 
Society of Corvallis).

Judy mentioned COBOL. There is also an Eastern Oregon list. Birders 
interested in Malheur County should consider following the Idaho list 
(e.g. via www.birdingonthe.net), since Idaho birders like Denise Hughes 
and Dave Lawrence patrol that area more often than anyone from the 
Eugene-Portland axis. Southwestern Oregon, Grant County, the Umatilla 
area, and the Klamath basin all have local reporting networks, though I 
am not sure how many of these have wound up as list-serves. Some reports 
from NE Oregon end up on the Inland Northwest list-serve, which makes 
sense from a regional perspective.

Having local lists (or less formal reporting networks) is a good thing, 
in my opinion. It helps to promote local birding. Beginners and 
yard-birders can comfortably post their sightings without worrying 
whether their note about juncos will be significant on the state-wide 
scale. In spring, people can still have fun reporting the first local 
Rufous Hummingbird, even though the first one in SW Oregon showed up 
weeks ago.

A local list helps birders to enjoy good birds close to home. Instead of 
worrying about how to find time off from daily responsibilities to go 
see, say, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the other side of the state, 
they can celebrate the return of Anna's Hummingbirds as the Rufous 
Hummingbirds depart. While the savings in gas and stress have not been 
measured, I suspect they are tangible.

I fully support the work of field notes compilers such as Dave Irons' 
for North American Birds. I don't think that having multiple lists 
leads to any significant state-level rarities going unreported. In 
general these get passed on to OBOL, though sometimes with a day or 
two's delay.

I'm happy to pass on, to Dave and any other compilers who need them, my 
monthly local field notes columns. Hopefully these give a good summary 
of what transpired locally (a reminder helps since I may forget to mail 
these out each month). For COBOL, Chuck Gates monitors and summarizes 
each season for the ECBC field notes. In Grant County, Tom Winters 
reports on what comes through the local network in each month's issue of 
/The Upland Sandpiper/. Tom Mickel's columns for Lane Co. Audubon, and 
John Lundsten's columns for Salem, cover quite a bit of reporting that 
does not make it onto OBOL.

In view of the mind-boggling volume of OBOL postings, never mind the 
additional volume on local lists, I'd think that relying on these local 
summaries is the only way for field notes compilers on larger scales to 
maintain sanity. I certainly feel that way about the Willamette basin notes.

So to sum up, the more lists, the merrier. I have not even gone into the 
dreaded "citizen science" angles, but I think local and regional lists 
have a lot of advantages over a single state-wide list, in those terms 
as well. Think global, bird local.

Good birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
jgeier at attglobal.net