The Paskamansett Bird Club’s February meeting will be on Wednesday, February 13th, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Hall of Friends Meeting, 739 Horseneck Road, in South Dartmouth. Local scientist and educator Evan Dalton will discuss the digital age of birdwatching and the ways in which eBird has become an extremely useful tool for scientists and birders alike.

Since its creation in the early 2000’s, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s citizen science project known as eBird has received over a half a BILLION observations of over 10,000 species of bird throughout the globe. The success of eBird relies entirely upon the observations of birdwatchers of all skill levels. In exchange for submitting data into the eBird database, eBird users get an excellent method of keeping track of their sightings, sharing their lists with others and, for the bird listers out there, keeping track of life lists. EBird is also an exceptional tool for helping bird watchers find new birds or places to go for a bird walk.

That being said, many are unaware of the benefits of eBird, or intimidated by the process. In this talk, Evan will aim to demystify the process and show how birders can best utilize this powerful tool to better understand birds and birdwatching.

Evan Dalton joined the Manomet Staff as the Lead Instructor for the Climate Lab program in October 2014. In this position, he works with teachers and students to collect data on environmental indicators of climate change. His history with Manomet, however, goes back many years. He has been a bird banding intern, a lead bander, an educator for visiting groups, a biologist at the BP oil spill, and a part-time assistant in helping Manomet to develop the protocols for the Climate Lab.

Evan earned a BA in Biology at Earlham College, IN, studying herpetology and ornithology; he subsequently completed an MS in Oganismic and Evolutionary Biology studying Wood Thrushes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has also had a variety of jobs in ornithology, herpetology and environmental education in the US and Bahamas.

The meeting is free, open to the public, and accessible.