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Here are a few answers to Larry's musings. The "Explore a Region" tool tells us that 199,166 complete checklists have been submitted to eBird for Vermont as of 11:01 this morning. In the "Explore a Region"click on Hotspots and you will find the highest number of species at the Dead Creek WMA IBA hotspot (242) and many, many hotspots with greater than 150 species reported (and surely there are many non-hotspot personal locations and home lists with greater than 150 species). The top ten hotspots for species reported are: Dead Creek WMA IBA 242 Herrick's Cove IBA 226 Dead Creek WMA IBA--Brilyea Access 220 Delta Park IBA 217 Button Bay State Park 206 Charlotte Town Beach 206 Shelburne Bay 205 Retreat Meadows / West River Mouth 202 Lake Runnemede / Evarts Pond - (62 acres) - Paradise Park 198 Missisquoi NWR IBA 195 The Top 100 list (which ONLY includes eBird records) has these individuals with the longest species lists: 1 David Hoag 344 2 Craig Provost 319 3 Fred Pratt 318 4 Jim Mead 311 The eBird Top 100 list for eBird checklists has these folks with the most eBird submissions of complete checklists: 1 Ian Worley 10379 2 Craig Provost 8214 3 Susan Elliott 6479 4 Ron Payne 5624 (Note that there is not always a correlation between numbers of species recorded by a person and numbers of checklists submitted. Vermont birders have lots of different interests and thus different birding habits.) Some of the other categories Larry mentions can be obtained with not too much analytical work from eBird. And others are good projects for analysts with a fair amount of time on their hands. As for other questions to add to the list of curiosities, I'll start the additions with these: I'd love to see a list of individuals according to the numbers of years they have been birding in Vermont (we have some amazing folks that should be recognized!). I'd love to discover what are the most common ages at which persons started birding. What are the longest, continuously and regularly monitored sites? What are the largest numbers of species discovered on 24 hour "big days"? Ian =============================================== On 5/24/2016 10:50 AM, Larry and Mona Rogers wrote: > E Bird is a great success in Vermont. I don’t know how many sightings have been reported over the years – they must run into the thousands. I’m sure Kent could tell us. > While E Bird is unsurpassed for finding information on individual species with dates, counts and locations, other data could probably be mined from its vast data base. For instance: > > • What are the top ten locations in Vermont for generating E Bird reports? I might guess the West Rutland Swamp, Mount Philo, Shelburne Bay, Mount Mansfield, Pearl Street in Brandon, etc., but I really don’t know. The list could be titled “Vermont’s Ten Most Birded Spots”. > • Which locations in Vermont have generated the largest number of individual species reports? Are there places where over 150 species have been sighted? 100? 75? > • Which Vermont birders are the most active E Bird contributors? > • What are the ten rarest birds spotted in Vermont? I think of Whooping Crane, Painted Bunting, Black-Tailed Gull, Golden-Crowned Sparrow, the currently visiting Prothonotary Warbler and several others. Selection criteria might be single species sightings from a specific location over a relatively short time interval. > • At the other end of the spectrum, what are the most commonly reported species either by number of E Bird reports containing them, or by total count of individuals? Chickadee, House Sparrow, Crow, Starling, Blue Jay? The list might be called “The Trash Birds of Vermont”. > > Anyhow, I’m sure other folks could suggest other lists. It might be interesting. > > Larry the Compulsive Lister > > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10