Clarification of Project and Additional Terms and Rules

First off, I would like to thank all of those who have joined this project and I really appreciate the time you've taken to join the project and save me some time to add your observations. I would've never expected my project to be this big a week after its creation. So once again, I thank you for your time.

Unfortunately, after a week, I've already encounter some problems with the project and I want to address the issue before it becomes such a big problem, I can't fix it. I had to remove a bunch of observations this morning because they fell short of project requirements. The first example being, I received a bunch of reptile eggs like turtles and snakes. And if you go to the About section of Active Nests, the first statement I made in regards to the project is, "This project is to compile all "active" nest observations of birds across the world."

So the clarification here is, this project is only for bird nests or eggs and nothing else. All nests or eggs that are not birds, such as reptiles, amphibians or insects, will be removed from the project.

Second problem I've encounter is well... there's no nice way to say it. I've also been seeing eggshells or nest-less eggs being added to the project. So here's the clarification. This is a project for active nests, not evidence of nesting. Adding these observations muck up data because we're trying to understand when birds breed. So if you add an eggshell or even an old nest in October when the species is a May-August breeder, that messes with the data. So once again, I plead with the fact this is only for active nests. If you have eggshells, old nests or anything else, there are plenty of other nest projects to submit them to. All sightings of inactive nests, eggshells or nest-less (unless its a species that normally does not build a nest like shorebirds) eggs will be removed from the project.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-nests-n-america
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/eggs-and-nests
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bird-nests-of-north-america

Third and last problem I've encountered. Inviable eggs does not count as an "active" nest. So if you make an observation of an inviable (dead or unhatched) egg, such as Tree Swallow, in a Minnesota December, it does not meet project requirements because it's not active. That's because Tree Swallows appear to be a very strict May-July breeder and eggs hatch in about 14-17 days. They'll migrate out of Minnesota in September, so if that egg in December was going to hatch, it would've hatched long before then. Any observations that show probable inviable eggs will be removed from the project.

That's all the problems I've encountered and all of these observations that fail to meet project requirements will affect the data I'm trying to collect. Your diligence in following these requests are greatly appreciated. For those who haven't joined the project yet will now have additional "Terms and Rules" to agree to when they join. Before now, I only had the rule that you agree to follow the Code of Conduct in watching bird nests. The terms are now as followed:

"By joining this project, you agree to follow the protocols presented in the "Code of Conduct" presented by Cornell's NestWatch project, to maximize the chances of a successful nesting attempt. To read the Code of Conduct:

https://nestwatch.org/learn/how-to-nestwatch/code-of-conduct/

All observations added must be Aves (Birds) and be an active nest. Meaning parents building/fixing nest, eggs or young in nest. Inviable (dead) eggs or deceased young do not meet project requirements."

Once again, I thank you for joining the project and I hope my attitude in this post hasn't deterred you from your contributions to the project. I just want to make sure the project continues down the course it was meant to follow, otherwise it would be no different than the projects I've listed above. Thank you for understanding.

Posted on February 20, 2020 05:09 PM by birdwhisperer