Birding News and Features

ISS Newsletter for 2011

The annual newsletter from ISS/PRISM has now been published for 2011 and is available for download. Each year the newsletter, which is sent out to all participants, provides perspectives on the populations and seasonal patterns of shorebirds based on ISS/PRISM data. In this year's newsletter, we introduce Brad Winn and give information on shorebird workshops and the ISS/eBird partnership. A longer article by Paul Smith details how researchers have used citizen science data from the ISS to understand trends for over 40 species of shorebirds in North America. These have yielded some well-known results, such as confirmation of declines in Red Knot and Long-billed Curlew, along with surprising ones, such as declines in Black-bellied Plover and an increase in abundance for Semipalmated Plover.

ISS Newsletter for 2010

The annual newsletter from ISS/PRISM has now been published for 2010 and is available for download. Each year the newsletter, which is sent out to all participants, provides perspectives on the populations and seasonal patterns of shorebirds based on ISS/PRISM data. In this year's newsletter, three short features discuss the role of ISS/PRISM in the Gulf Coast oil disaster; a color-banding project with Semipalmated Sandpipers and how to report observations; and a bit more explanation about the data-quality process in eBird (see also this story). A longer article discusses how and where to report color-banded shorebirds, with detailed information on the various projects using color-banding and recommendations on what to watch for if you encounter a banded shorebird. A case study of how ISS data is being used at a WHSRN site at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR is also featured.

ISS newsletter for 2009

The annual newsletter from ISS/PRISM has now been published and is available for download here. Each year the newsletter, which is sent out to all participants, provides perspectives on the populations and seasonal patterns of shorebirds based on ISS/PRISM data. This year's newsletter highlights some of the visualizations available in ISS eBird. The newsletter describes ways that you can explore seasonal changes in frequency, abundance, and other counts by using the eBird data exploration tools. In addition, the June 2009 newsletter presents an historical review of the changes in Red Knot populations and how those have varied geographically. Read on for insight on how these changes may indicate that long-distant migrant knots are now much rarer in Massachusetts, while the short-distant migrants that winter in Florida may in fact be using Massachusetts staging areas more.

ISS eBird Portal now active

The International Shorebird Surveys (ISS) and the Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (PRISM) are now being run through the eBird website. If you are unfamiliar with these shorebird surveys, which depend on the efforts of volunteers, you can read more about them here. For those of you that already participate, it is very very important that you enter your ISS surveys only through the ISS eBird site. Please use this site only for your ISS surveys, and please use core eBird or your local eBird portal for your other bird observations. This allows us to identify which surveys were ISS surveys and which ones were not. But don't worry, every sighting you submit to eBird, whether to core eBird, to ISS eBird, or to a regional portal such as California eBird or aVerAves (Mexico), will be completely integrated with your personal eBird account.