INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society have collaborated on ebird.org to establish the biggest database of any science in the world. Citizens anywhere in the world can contribute to this database.
Wherever a person is in the world, he or she can get on ebird.org and record the birds seen at a specific location. The organizations want to keep the common birds common, so they are aiming to have a record of all birds, not just rare ones. The record includes what birds are in the world at that time and where. So ebird.org is asking everyone around the world to join in on May 9 for the first ever “Global Big Day.” This day is intended to see how many birds of the 10,000 species in the word, every person who participates can count that day.
Pelican Island Audubon Society (PIAS) wants to cover Indian River County. PIAS is encouraging people across the county to take three minutes, wherever they are, to record all the birds they see and/or hear at that specific location for three minutes, or as long as a person is willing to give. This specific data is so powerful as it gives the Audubon Society information about what bird on Earth is where (using GPS coordinates) and when.
The Audubon Society needs everyone. PIAS’ Juanita Baker is going to hold a one hour brief introductory eBird course to teach the public how to join, be an eBird counter and record birds, at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday May 6, at the Audubon House, 195 9th St. SE (Oslo Road). Bring a laptop, ipad, or iphone. Find more information on eBird.org, and learn how to help. For those who cannot join the course, see a brief tutorial to get started: http://pelicanislandaudubon.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=00b387f8c177465d6f1b3a571&id=c254b4dd8d&e=e35408921f
For more information call (772) 567-3520 or email piaudubon@bellsouth.net.
