Thank you, Kent, for some clarification on this as I was formulating my question about entering CBC data in ebird.   I have asked each of my route teams to enter their 'sector' data in ebird.  For my route, I gave it a location somewhat in the middle of the route and called it CBC Winhall - S Rd to Rte 100.  (or NE loop - NOTE this Ed H and Ned S!).  Thus each team records what they saw.  Is there any way for the parts to come together for the whole CBC count in ebird?  

Ruth Stewart

E. Dorset, VT

 > Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:21:01 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VTBIRD] CBCs and VT eBird
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Thank you everyone for submitting your data you are collecting on Christmas
> Bird Counts to Vermont eBird. We got a ton of checklists from this weekend
> in VT eBird from all of you CBCers. VT eBird can be a great way to store
> your sector-level data (the region you bird in the count circle) and
> compare it from year to year. Entering data for the CBC and for eBird
> presents no problem at all. Indeed, one day we envision the possibility of
> entering your eBird list and having it automatically contribute to the CBC.
> 
> As you head out to do Christmas Counts this season, please remember the
> following helpful hints for adding your CBC data to eBird:
> 
> - Most CBC circles are divided into multiple sectors, with teams of people
> (“parties”) covering each sector. Remember that eBird counts are single
> party counts, so any data collected during the CBC season should be entered
> for single parties only, not parties that spend a lot of time split up.
> 
> - The official CBC effort does not permanently store information at the
> “sector” level. eBird provides an opportunity to permanently record those
> data. For example, most coastal counts will have a substantially different
> mix of birds on the open beach versus areas 5 or 10 miles inland. eBird
> thrives on location specificity, so we welcome your sector data from the
> CBC.
> 
> - While eBird works best with location specific sightings, it can be time
> consuming to enter multiple lists from a single day. We certainly
> appreciate those who take the time to break a day of birding into discrete
> stops, but a day-long traveling count or area count is not completely
> inappropriate. The important thing is that you describe what you did
> (accurate mileage, duration etc.) for your sector that you birded.
> 
> - If you do use a day-long count to enter your count, please give some
> thought as to the location that you use. Please do not plot your point at a
> 'hotspot' if you spent significant time birding outside of the hotspot
> area. It is far better to plot a new point to represent the CBC sector, and
> to name it in a way that makes it clear what it represents -- such as
> “Lakeville CBC--Sector 5”. Since hotspot summaries depend on data collected
> at the actual point, the bar charts and other summaries become much less
> meaningful when they include data from outside the location.
> 
> Many thanks in advance to all of who participate in both eBird and the CBC.
> Our collective knowledge of birds has grown exponentially thanks to the
> efforts of citizen scientists like yourselves.
> 
> Kent McFarland
> VT eBird manager
> ____________________________
> 
> Kent McFarland
> Vermont Center for Ecostudies
> PO Box 420 | Norwich, Vermont 05055
> 
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