Date: 3/12/26 10:37 am From: Bruce Conti <contiba...> Subject: Re: [NHBirds] Location in eBird - please choose correct hotspot
Interesting because a few months ago one of the people at eBird instructed
the opposite. I had been hiking around Spatterdock Pond in the Beaver
Brook Reservation in Hollis, starting and finishing at the Whiting Trail,
and placed my location at Spatterdock Pond. I received an email from eBird
instructing me to relocate to the nearby Maple Hill hotspot even though I
hadn't been hiking through that spot, indicating that they preferred using
a hotspot for data rather than a custom location outside the hotspot. So I
changed the location in my checklist. I wish I still had the email.
On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 3:54 PM <nha......> <nhanke...>
wrote:
> This is a reminder that location for an eBird checklist is meant to
> represent *where the birder was located throughout the time of that
> checklist*, not where they were looking towards. If you are standing
> outside a hotspot or in hotspot B rather than hotspot A, then do not assign
> the list to hotspot A.
> When multiple hotspots are close together, for example in Hinsdale
> (Hinsdale Setbacks, Hinsdale Bluffs, Fort Hill Rail Trail, Lake
> Wantastiquet), if you bird across more than one location, then either stop
> one list at the boundary and then start another, or use a personal location
> with a descriptive name. If you were on the bluffs and not actually in Lake
> Wantastiquet, do not use the pin of Lake Wantastiquet. Otherwise, data will
> be wrong, implying open water habitat when multiple waterfowl are reported
> when in fact the water is fully frozen-over. Also, birders will be misled
> as to where birds are located, wasting their time and energy in the wrong
> location.
>
>
--
Bruce Conti
*B.A.Conti Photography* www.baconti.com/birding.htm
*¡BAMLog!* www.bamlog.com
