The first presentation will be by long time COG member Stuart Harris who will screen the film Maratus produced by award winning local film maker, Simon Cunich. This is a documentary about two men and a spider illustrating the power of citizen science to reveal nature’s most extraordinary and well hidden wonders.
The main presentation will be by Alastair Smith and is entitled “eBird and you, the Canberra birder”.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s ‘eBird’ is more than just a 5 letter word. eBird is a real-time, online checklist program, that has revolutionised the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds.
Alastair’s presentation is aimed at all birders, whether or not you use eBird. If you don’t use eBird, then he will demonstrate some of the many uses for eBird in planning trips or answering those questions about bird presence/absence and abundance. If you do use eBird, he will talk about how to be a better eBirder.
Specifically the talk will cover the following topics:
- eBird participation – worldwide, but with particular reference to the ACT
- Data entry – using the web and mobile devices
- Exploring eBird data – look at some of the tools that all birders can access
- eBird data quality – how data quality are maintained
- eBird data analysis – some examples of how data are used at the landscape level
- How to be a better eBirder – tips and tricks to make your data more meaningful