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New to NYSOA County & State Listing for 2015 is the long-awaited Pelagic Zone (PZ). The PZ is a new, unique entity. It is not equivalent to a county, nor is it equivalent to a Kingbird Region. Using it in your report will not require you to change or rearrange any of your past county entries (unless sightings were assigned to the wrong county in the past).
In 2011, the New York State pelagic region/zone was defined by NYSARC as beginning 3 [statute] miles from shore and extending to the 200 nautical mile mark, with state boundary lines calculated using the NPoL/CPoL (Nearest/Closest Point of Land) method.
On the County & State Listing form, you can now enter your Pelagic Zone life total immediately following the 62 counties. Enter your life total for your offshore sightings in the Pelagic Zone (beyond the 3-mile mark from shore, within NYS pelagic boundaries).
Consistent with eBird and ABA protocols, each Pelagic Zone observation should be assigned not only to the Pelagic Zone but also to the county having the nearest point of land (NPoL) to the sighting location. If you record the sighting location accurately in eBird (using coordinates or an existing hotspot when appropriate), eBird will automatically assign it to the correct state and county.
In short, each NYS Pelagic Zone species should be counted (a) on your PZ list, (b) on at least one of the three candidate county lists (Queens, Nassau, Suffolk), and (c) on your Region 10 and NYS lists.
Note that Brooklyn will not be assigned any pelagic sightings beyond the 3-mile line, because Queens includes the Rockaways peninsula all the way west to Breezy Point, and the waters west from there, south to NJ waters. Even so, Queens doesn’t have a big piece of the PZ either, nor does Nassau. Here is a link for a handy (albeit somewhat unofficial) google map with county lines shown:
https://www.mob-rule.com/gmap?strokeColor=DD1188&q=suffolk%2C+ny&0=Load
Total Ticks will continue to be calculated as the sum of your 62 county totals only (to prevent double-counting).
Pelagic Example:
An interesting exercise is to “Explore” pelagic sighting history on eBird and look at the maps.
For example, look at the eBird map showing were Wilson’s Storm-Petrel has been reported.
Zoom in until you can see the individual pins in the ocean. If you click on any pin, you will see what county that location is assigned to. As you move across from west to east, you will see where the NJ line is (roughly) as well as the RI line. It shows that pelagic trips leaving Suffolk may very well be in RI or even MA waters during part of the trip.
Pelagic Zone FAQ
Q1: How do I choose a county for a sighting made while I'm on a boat doing a pelagic trip? Do I use the boat's point of departure?
A1: No. The point of departure is irrelevant. What is relevant is where the bird was observed. When you think about it, using the point of departure for pelagic sightings is like using your home address for all birds you see after you drive out of your driveway. To assign the right county (and state!), you need to determine where the closest point of land is from the sighting location. Whatever state and county that point belongs to is where the observation should be assigned. This is the way eBird does it. In fact, if you use your (or someone else's) cell phone GPS capabilities (which don't require cell access), you can determine the latitude/longitude coordinates and enter those in eBird, and then the correct county will be assigned automatically.
Q2: What about pelagic species I observe from land?
A2: In almost all cases, those would be assigned to the county from which you observed them, but NOT to the Pelagic Zone, since the PZ begins 3 miles offshore. The only time they would be assigned to a different county is when you are standing near a county line and looking out diagonally onto the water that is closer to the adjacent county.
Q3: Do I need to remove past pelagic trip sightings from my county lists?
A3: No. Sightings in the Pelagic Zone (more than 3 miles from shore) should be included in your lists for the PZ, the state, Region 10, and the county that has the closest point of land to the sighting location. You will want to add your past Pelagic Zone sightings to the PZ, but they should remain on your county, region, and state lists as well.
Useful links:
eBird Pelagic Protocol
https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000950859-guide-to-ebird-protocols#anchorPelagic
Discussion of east coast pelagic boundaries, with offshore pelagic map (by Nate Dias):
https://blog.aba.org/2018/03/open-mic-on-east-coast-pelagic-boundaries.html
Google map showing county lines in New York State:
https://www.mob-rule.com/gmap?strokeColor=DD1188&q=suffolk%2C+ny&0=Load
What if an inland body of water straddles a county line?
by Carena Pooth, June 2023
Back in the 1990s, there was a strict rule for NSYOA's county listers: to add a bird to a county list, the bird had to be physically located in that county. Sure seems logical! If that is the rule you personally follow for your lists, you may choose to continue to do so. See Berna Lincoln's explanation below.
On the other hand, eBird, which is now used by most birders, prefers a different protocol near borders that is not so hung up on geopolitical boundaries. eBird's guidelines state that "Every bird seen or heard from your location "counts", regardless of where the bird is."
As a longtime, dutiful adherent to the NYSOA county listing rule, I had a hard time wrapping my head around this new directive for a while. But birds fly and they don't stop when they are about to cross one of our [to them] artificial boundaries. So I've embraced the eBird protocol regarding borders, which frees me from the angst that used to grip me when I was trying to decide whether a distant duck in the middle of the Hudson River was on the Dutchess side or the Ulster side! It simply goes on the list for my location! But watch out! You can't stand in one county and put a bird on two different county lists at the same time! In other words, you can't watch a duck fly across a border and put it on two different county lists for that single sighting!
A full discussion of the applicable eBird protocol (along with a useful aside about county listing) is available here:
https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48001059718-ebird-policies-for-special-birding-circumstances#anchorBirdingBorders
Discussion on Inland Water Body Boundaries
(the original guideline for NYSOA county listing -- see above for newer eBird protocol)
by Berna Lincoln, October 1999
Inland waters: DeLorme is the standard for boundaries on all enclosed water bodies, such as the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain,
Long Island Sound, Hudson River, etc. (I know, it doesn't do a thorough job on Lakes Ontario and Erie but I think you can
figure it out.) An important point to remember is that boundaries in these waters aren't always "in the middle" and you really
do need to consult a map. A very good example is the south shore of Oneida Lake where Onondaga and Madison counties
include the shoreline but none of the lake's waters. When I stood on that shore and saw Snow Buntings flying over the water,
they were in Oswego County until they chose to land near my feet in the parking lot in Onondaga. Had they veered off before
crossing the shoreline, well, no tickie in Onondaga. Which brings up that old question, sometimes still raised. The answer is:
It's where the bird is, not where the observer is.
Google map showing county lines in New York State:
https://www.mob-rule.com/gmap?strokeColor=DD1188&q=suffolk%2C+ny&0=Load |
