Date: 3/2/23 11:23 am From: Kimball Garrett <cyanolyca818...> Subject: [LACoBirds] Soliciting Winter season reports for Los Angeles County
Birders,
The Winter Season (December through February) for *North American Birds* reports has ended, and I would appreciate receiving information from the active birding community in Los Angeles County about notable sightings during the period..
I am able to glean most of my information from eBird, but I am especially interested in hearing about the following: (1) Sightings of note from those of you who do not enter your records into eBIrd, even if you might have posted such information on this listserv or through various social media outlets (2) Summaries of notable events, unusual numbers (or scarcities), etc. that are not always obvious or easily searched in eBird. (3) Interesting geographical records from common species (which saves me time poring over eBird maps looking for outliers for dozens or hundreds of species).
So what happens to these reports?
As most of you know, I write four seasonal reports a year for Los Angeles County and rely on eBird and additional information from you to populate these reports. These reports (and those from the other Southern California counties as well as San Clemente Island) are then used to produce the quarterly reports for* North American Birds* that Guy McCaskie and I write. These reports are available here: https://www.aba.org/nab-reports/
The journal *North American Birds *was abandoned by the National Audubon Society many years ago but then taken over by the American Birding Association. The ABA continues to publish *North American Birds* twice annually (available to ABA members), but since 2016 the Regional reports have only been available on-line. Though lacking the regional reports, *North American Birds* still includes interesting articles and galleries of rarity photos and is certainly worth subscribing to. Unfortunately, through all of these transitions, many reporting regions in North America have ceased submitting reports, and many other regions are years behind. Guy and I are proud to say that the Southern California regional reports are up-to-date (we expect the Fall 2022 report to be posted on-line soon), although there is still a 2016-2018 gap that is being addressed. Sadly, it appears that no Northern California reports have been posted since Summer 2016.
I am working on getting the Los Angeles County reports, which I have written since 1979, on-line, either through the Natural History Museum's Ornithology website or another outlet. [I'd like to thank Chris Dean for carefully reviewing drafts of my L. A. County reports before they are finalized.] The other southern California county sub-regional editors (you see their names when Guy McCaskie solicits seasonal reports four times a year) maintain archives of their reports in various ways. Ultimately it would be nice to have all of these available on-line.
Good birding, and remember that reports for the Spring season (March through May) will be due in early June.
