On June 25, 2015, Wendy Connally riveted the attention of the ABC’ers lucky enough to attend. She was happy we were mostly using eBird, but she showed how much more useful our entries could be if we could record exactly where each bird is seen, now that the data is being used by researchers who will be key in protecting the wildlife.

She notified us that BirdLog for recording to eBird in the field would be phased out in favor of a newer better app called eBird Mobile. More here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ebird_mobile_ios1/

Wendy reports back:

“I truly enjoyed our time together – loved the energy and engagement in that room … Such a small world and many WA-TX connections. I hope you got some good information out of the presentation, and please contact me if you have any questions. As promised, here are a few links from last night’s presentation:

· Washington State Wildlife Action Plan – resources and revision schedule, contact to provide your comments at bottom of this page: http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/cwcs/

· Washington Species of Greatest Conservation Need http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/cwcs/#sgcn use the “Birds” link in the bulleted list at the bottom of this page or the “Birds” links in the righthand sidebar for lists and fact sheets.

· Once the SWAP has been finalized, a useful approach is to review the Habitats of Greatest Conservation Need section and cross-reference that with the Species Fact Sheets to see which birds need more information AND where those birds might be found. Field Trip!! Every state has a State Wildlife Action Plan and Species of Greatest Conservation Need list … just in case you’re traveling and want to eBird for their benefit too.

TEXAS RARITIES:

Please share this short list of Central TX birding sites for GCWA and/or BCVI which we discussed briefly last night, plus I’d encourage you to look into the area a bit more for local parks, too (e.g. Friedrich Wilderness Park in San Antonio, Cibolo Nature Center):

· USFWS Balcones Canyonlands NWR

· Balcones Canyonlands HCP Preserves

· Pedernales Falls State Park

· Government Canyon SNA

· Lost Maples SNA

· Kickapoo Cavern State Park

· Devils River State Natural Area

· Fort Hood (some public areas)

· Hill Country Conservancy and other central Texas land trusts

I may be offering an eBird Northwest technical training next winter (February – March sometime), shopping that around to various chapters. I’ll keep you posted if that comes together since a few folks asked for that last night. Am happy to visit with your group again sometime if you think there’s a subject I could support for you related to eBird or Washington’s SGCN.

Wendy Connally, Citizen Science Coordinator, WDFW Wildlife Diversity Conservation Assessment, (360) 902.2695 office direct, Wendy.Connally@dfw.wa.gov

Click on photos below to enlarge: