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Re: The infamous Hilton Head CBC




Harry and carolinabirders,

I'm so glad to hear the straight scoop from Harry LeGrand on this.  Thanks
for responding.  As counterpoint to Harry's story about disappearing
Common Mergansers on a count he did, let me offer this.

When I first had a bird I legitimately saw deleted from a CBC (by the
local compiler, I'm sure - it was a Northern Harrier in inland MA, not
terribly rare, but definitely my best bird of the day), I was quite
distressed, and decided to do what I could to make sure that didn't happen
again.  I got in touch with the local Audubon society who helped
coordinate the count, and volunteered to help compile and be an active
liason between birders and compilers the next year.  It turned out they
"between compilers" and were dying, desperate, to have someone take over
the count.

So I took over the job of compiling, and had a successful run of four
years organizing it, with great participation (and record species totals)
until I moved away four years later.  I hounded the heck out of
participants for details (and was the butt of local jokes because of it),
but was able to support everything I submitted to the regional editors,
and got the occasional "Excellent Details" footnote to make it all
worthwhile.  

My long-winded point is that the shock of having a legitimate bird deleted
(or even loudly and publicly doubted) can be a major spur to action for
conscientous birders.  The Hilton Head compiler may be out of touch with
the larger community of Carolina birders and may never read the CBC issues
(it seems likely), but maybe someone there is listening.  (George and Judy
Halleron obviously are).

Harry LeGrand notes:
> deleting species causes
> problems WITHIN the group of observers on the count, IF they subscribe
> to the count issue (which I suspect hardly any of them do).

to which I'd respond:

1) I think the blame for any problems within the HH counters caused by
deleted species should rest squarely on the shoulders of the local
compiler.  I don't have the HH count in front of me, but looking at the 
list of birds Jack Peachey posted, any rational observer would know the
regional editor isn't causing the problems.

2) Some problems within that group might be just what they need to wake
them up.  To those on the Hilton Head count who do read the count issue, I
say send them as clear a message as possible.  If nobody does read it,
then nobody's hurt by the deletion of obvious mistakes, and the
credibility of the CBC effort as a whole is helped.

I hope this doesn't come across wrong, although it probably will, being on
e-mail and all.  It's Harry's job to decide how to handle rogue counts and
frankly, I'm sure he has thought longer and harder about the tradeoffs and
the best way to handle them than I have.  But as someone who did put lots
of effort into organizing several counts, I have little patience with
slipshod compiling.  It would bug me, as it seemed to bother Jack, if I
did another SC count (or birded for the Hilton Head circle) and I felt
that my credibility was compromised by association.

Chris Hill
Conway, SC
chill@coastal.edu