Monthly Archives: February 2021

eBird Tip – Viewing Bar Charts

eBird bar chart screenshot

eBird bar chart screenshot for Montrose Point (click to see the larger version)

Among the many features eBird has to offer, one of the most useful is the ability to view bar charts for a given hotspot. These bar charts make it easy to see monthly status information for all the species eBird has records of for a hotspot. To pull up an eBird bar chart

  1. Go to an eBird hotspot
  2. In the pale blue sidebar on the left side of the page, click the Bar Charts link under the EXPLORE heading (the graphic below is a screenshot of this section).

eBird sidebar screenshot

That’s it. The chart may take a few seconds to completely load, so be patient. Try it for Montrose Point and see what comes up.

Long-tailed Duck, February 2, 2021

Long-tailed Duck with a fish (click to see the larger version)

A very tame female Long-tailed Duck showed up in the harbor on February 1. She was still there on February 2. The bird has a pale spot on the bill, a mark I associate with male Long-tailed Ducks, but I think the head is too dark for a young male and the scapulars are brown, not pale gray as would be expected on a young male Long-tailed. Note the small fish she caught in the photo. More photos of this bird are at my eBird checklist for the day, URL below.

The west side of Montrose Harbor is still open and has been hosting a decent variety of waterfowl for us and for the time of the year, including Greater and Lesser Scaup, a Bufflehead, an American Black Duck, and until recently, a Brant and Snow Goose. This will probably change with the bitterly cold air forecast to arrive over the weekend.

eBird Checklist
February 2, 2021