Posted by Toe on January 01, 1970 at 00:00:00
I am one of 4, and only 4, monitors for the FLRBA, and we depend on reports coming in from birders to alert us to the rarities found in Florida so we can put them on the listserve. My point is that, since most birders are not using the listserves or the Bird Board anymore, our job has become much harder having to scroll through all the lists of static in order to find the true rarities. We have a very specific list of what is considered a rarity in Florida. The only birds not on that list that are reported as rarities are birds that are not on the Florida list either, such as Pacific Golden Plover last year. I would rather birders who live by eBird would just take the few seconds to report a rarity on the Bird Boar or contact me or one of the other FLRBA monitors when they find a rarity, and not rely solely on eBird. My gripe with eBird isn't that people use it. It's that it has now replaced the other reporting forums for birds, but it just doesn't do the same job. Brian is a HUGE help because he actually takes the time to go through all the clutter to do his Rare Bird Update, but this is only for South Florida. The FLRBA includes all of Florida. If someone finds a genuine rarity, all we ask is that it's reported as such, without the filler. Species name, location with directions, date. That's all. No need to tell us how many collared doves or starlings were also seen. Believe it or not, it's the rarities that get people excited about birding. You're not going to see lines of cars waiting to get into Hugenot Park to see an exotic, non-countable duck. (reference to the Greater Sand-Plover at Jax).