NA Phenology Project - volunteers needed

[Mayabird]

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/

What is Phenology?
Phenology is the scientific study of the relationship between natural phenomena (flowering, breeding, migration) and climatic or seasonal changes.

From 1880 until 1970, thousands of bird-watchers in the US and Canada sent in cards listing the dates when migratory bird species first showed up in their area. These cards were bundled up in string and stuck in boxes. Nothing came of it, until a couple years ago when it occurred to someone that there's a LOT of data in those six million cards and they really should be put into an easily accessible database.

Since these were mostly handwritten cards and not very standardized (sometimes rather idiosyncratic, actually), they have to be entered individually. All six million of them. Some volunteers have been scanning them so they can be sent out as image files to anybody with an internet connection to input the information.

You don't need to know anything about ornithology to do this (which is good because I'm probably one of the few bird-watchers on the board) and you can put as little or as much time into it as you want. I've been trying to do five a day when I get home from work, which takes less than five minutes. Free to sign up (and registration is pretty much automatic), and there's a fifteen minute intro video and an FAQ to answer questions. This is possibly the laziest volunteer work ever since you don't even need to go somewhere else to do it.

I put this in SLAM because it's science but it can be moved if it'd be more appropriate elsewhere.

[Executor32]

I just signed up, and so far I've done around 20 of them. I have to say, idiosyncratic doesn't even begin to describe some of the ones I was given.

Also, just because you're writing about birds doesn't mean chicken scratch is acceptable.

[frogcurry]

When I read your post title I thought that you were trying to recruit assistance in a phrenology program. I was getting a bit dubious for a second...

This doesn't actually seem like a particularly large project and rather short-term. Any idea on whether they can actually scan enough cards in advance to give all their contributors enough to do?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

When I read your post title I thought that you were trying to recruit assistance in a phrenology program. I was getting a bit dubious for a second...

This doesn't actually seem like a particularly large project and rather short-term. Any idea on whether they can actually scan enough cards in advance to give all their contributors enough to do?

I would imagine so. There are six million cards out there, and each one takes a bit of time to enter in. Much more time when one factors in the fact that, judging by the questionable quality of the handwriting, some of these cards were apparently filled out whilst drunk . . . requiring the transcriber to consult a bird-watching guide, or hit Google to try to puzzle out some of the species names.

[bilateralrope]

And each card will need to be transcribed multiple times to catch any transcription errors or someone trying to screw up the process.

[Mayabird]

Thanks everybody for participating.

Also, to answer people's questions: this is a very new project. It only went online in February. Of the six million cards, slightly under 300k have been scanned, and only about 17,000 have been fully transcribed. I think there was some earlier stuff before it went online, but suffice to say, there are still millions of these things, each of which has to be done by hand. This will be going for a long time, and every little bit helps.

I think I'll make a sig link for this as well so I can keep tricking recruiting people for it.

[Zablorg]

I've been getting some that don't even have a bird on it, just two or three dates.

[Duckie]

I've been getting some that don't even have a bird on it, just two or three dates.

If you watched the intro video, you'd see there's a number that is the AOU number to write down. It's a code number for a bird from some guidebook or something.

Hopefully you haven't submitted a ton without that or they'll all be false data and have to be redone.

[Mayabird]

Yes, they might use the American Ornithologist's Union numbers instead of a name, or just a name (scientific or common), or both. That's what the random-looking number in the corner means.

Another few things to note:

The project went from 1880-1970. If you get a date that lists the year as something between '80 to '99, be careful that you don't put it in the 1900s. Also, a lot of these cards came from Canada, so if the state abbreviation looks weird, that's because it's actually from a province. Some of the names are outdated (like myrtle warbler, which is now just considered the eastern subspecies of the yellow-rumped warbler) but just go with what they list.

The FAQ is also very helpful.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I've been getting some that don't even have a bird on it, just two or three dates. :wtf:

Watch the training video. There are cards that will only have the AOU number and some dates on it, and can be transcribed in a meaningful manner. The real oddballs come when you start seeing cards which only talk about the breeding, nesting, and egg-laying habits of turkey vultures in the Texas panhandle or something similar.