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The infamous Hilton Head CBC



I'd like to answer some questions and comments regarding the Hilton Head
CBC and why I did NOT remove unlikely species from the count.

Certainly, complete removal of unlikely species cleans up a count and
make it look nice in printed form. It makes it appear that the compiler
and observers know what they are doing. However, 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).

I recall a count I participated on years ago, having seen Common
Mergansers, I believe. Whatever it was, the printed count in American
Birds had the species missing. I think what had happened was that
whoever was editing the counts at that time threw the species out
because of unlikely occurrence, poor details, or whatever. But, maybe
there was some typo. Maybe the compiler forgot to include Common
Merganser on the count form. Maybe the compiler decided not to report
Common Merganser becasue he or she didn't believe the report.

Thus, if a species is omitted from a published count, observers on the
count have no way of knowing, at least without asking around, what
happened.

I prefer to leave in questionable species. American Birds prefers they
be left in -- that's why they have the "ND" (No details) and other
two-letter acronyms available for editors to use. I DO change a few
species where it is clear that the compiler put totals in the wrong
place -- Ringed Kingfisher but no Belted Kingfisher. Also if something
is way out of range, such as reported 2 Ringed Kingfisher and 20
Belteds, I would call it 22 Belteds, and no Ringeds.

But -- the observers at Hilton Head COULD have seen Great Crested
Flycatcher, Barn Swallow, Black-throated Blue Warbler, etc. They have
appeared legitimately on Carolina CBC's before.

I typically look at count totals for surrounding counts, plus count
totals for that count in previous years, to decide whether to ND or
otherwise question a record.

Sorry to be long-winded, but I won't apologize for questioning so many
of Hilton Head's birds in print. They simply have to do a better job of
reporting and documenting unusual species. Most counts and compilers do
a good to excellent job with reporting of details, etc.

Harry LeGrand
NC/SC CBC Regional editor



--
Harry E. LeGrand, Jr.
N.C. Natural Heritage Program
Division of Parks and Recreation
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615

Office: (919) 715-8687
Home: (919) 832-3202
FAX: (919) 715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net
http://ils.unc.edu/parkproject/nhp/index.html