dragon49

I think I saw the bird when it was gliding, or at least only saw it with the wings fully extended like the photo that I embedded. Not 100% certain whether it was the same bird, but I went through all of my badly back lit photos late last night again, and I got enough details on one of the faces to ID as Little Blue Heron, which I reported. I'd normally also report heron.sp, however, the timestamps were the same, as some birds were circling together, so, as it could possibly be the same bird, I'm not going to potentially overreport.

In the past, photo attachments were limited to 10 MEG. That has now changed to 20 MEG. They now allow users to upload up to twenty photos. In the past it was ten. I don't remember what the audio size limitation was, but it's now up to 500 MEG. Also, looks like we can now upload twenty photos and ten audio files. I'm not certain, but I think the number was aggregate in the past, maxing out at ten. https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000825713-uploading-media Thanks Cornell!

In my documentation, in addition to describing the bird and differentiating it from a Red-bellied Woodpecker, I did state, "Known location," which should be synonymous with "continuing," so I think I adhered to the standards. In any event, I do often see lazy documentation for rarities on Ebird. I think it often comes down to the poster only being concerned with getting the observation confirmed, and not realizing that they have a greater responsibility to the community.

I know I don't need to do this for the county birders who would care, as they all get the Rare Bird Alerts and can figure out themselves that the bird is "continuing," and have other ways of knowing, but it might make sense to do this for others who live farther away, see the checklist, and may want to chase the bird.

Not an important ID. A Glossy Ibis wouldn't have that lump under the throat. I sometimes have a hard time deciding between distant, badly-lit photos of either Tricolored Herons or Great Blue Herons.

I agreed with you on the selection as soon as I shared that photo in the "lifers" thread. The one I posted wasn't cropped at all.

Taken this afternoon in Royal Palm Beach, Florida: Sorry - no better pics. This was lightened.

Continuing. I'm still relatively new at this and do well when I follow others. The only time I made the County Rare Bird Alert without following a report or without birding with our gurus or on a tour, was when my Louisia Waterthrush was flagged as rare as it was late.

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/467782411

Quick stop, as I showed up at the wrong part of this hotspot to chase a Red-headed Woodpecker lifer: https://ebird.org/checklist/S139762366 Main checklist where I got the lifer! https://ebird.org/checklist/S139784613

I made the County Rare Bird Alert with this Red-headed Woodpecker: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/578884091

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/578883951

The same pic - the darkened one was auto-fixed in Photoshop. I can't make out a second band but can't figure out what else it could be. Taken this afternoon in Royal Palm Beach, Florida:

This place has more to offer, but I was there in the middle of a hot day. Given the circumstances, I saw a good number of species. I had a great experience learning a Northern Mockingbird alarm call. I didn't report the NOMO until I actually saw the bird, as I thought a squirrel alarm call was faking out Merlin. I was able to capture a lot of audio to share. I'm still working out issues with my microphone setup, so the longer clips suffer from some peaking and wind noise, but the 27-second one is mostly clean. See the species notes for the full story: https://ebird.org/checklist/S139643198

Red-shouldered Hawk: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/578495731