tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435558235986080895.post5455101943242776213..comments2022-04-10T10:39:25.294-06:00Comments on Colorado & Wyoming eBird: eBird checklists and miles traveledTony Leukeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916255056323271189noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435558235986080895.post-10983079000130292912016-04-29T08:31:10.764-06:002016-04-29T08:31:10.764-06:00Tony, I bird Hanover Road, a hot spot in El Paso C...Tony, I bird Hanover Road, a hot spot in El Paso County, CO. A quick read of the checklists for this spot reveals distances traveled ranging from stationary to 15-miles or longer. While using the 15-mile entry always makes me feel a little off the mark, I have used it even though most of my Hanover Road checklists represent a collection of habitat-based shorter routes and stationary points. I suppose Hanover Road could be considered a “relatively homogeneous” stretch of habitat, but I don't think it is.<br /><br />Regardless of the distance entered on my checklists, I almost always use the hotspot “Hanover Road, El Paso County, Colorado” as the location. This means I generally enter three or four checklists for a single morning of birding along Hanover Road, each with a different distance traveled. For example, on April 12, 2016, I entered two checklists for the Hanover Road hotspot, one for 3.0 miles and the second for 5.0 miles. <br /><br />Perhaps a potential data inconsistency with using the Hanover Road hot spot is the map location. William's Creek is generally one of my stops on Hanover Road, but William's Creek is 5.4-miles west of the plotted location for Hanover Road. The wooded area near the intersection of Old Pueblo Road is even farther west.<br /><br />After reading your blog, I'm thinking I should ditch the hotspot and start using personal sites for all of my Hanover Road checklists. Doing so will shorten the distances traveled and improve accuracy of the location birded. However, I'm not certain that ditching the hotspot is the best way to go because the hot spot is a quick way for a traveling birder to evaluate a set of sites and decide where to bird.<br /><br />What do you think? Do you recommend using a set of personal locations for Hanover Road, or should I use the Hanover Road hotspot and vary the distance traveled/times for each of the segments and points birded? richard bunn BubbaNutcrackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08226416827174499829noreply@blogger.com