Tutorial- eBird recent sightings gadget by Drew Weber on Nemesis Bird

28Mar/1111

Tutorial- eBird recent sightings gadget

I was recently asked if there was a way to see all the birds recently reported to eBird for particular locations. It would be a great way to follow what other people are seeing and what to expect when out birding.

There is in fact something like this, available as a Google Gadget. I have been using several on my iGoogle homepage for a while now as you can see in the screenshot below. This is a great way for eBird reviewers to keep an eye on sightings going in to eBird and to watch for any notable records.

screenshot of my recent sightings page

I can quickly get an idea of areas that are being birded heavily, what is being seen, and hone in on any birds that I want to find.

I will walk you though setting up something similar for your iGoogle page.

Step 1.

Click on this link. (it will open in a new window)

Step 2.

Click on "Add Recent Bird Sightings to iGoogle".

Step 3.

You should have a new gadget added to your iGoogle page that looks like the image below. From here on you will be customizing the gadget for your own hotspots of interest.

recent sightings gadget setup

Step 4.

Now you have to configure the gadget. The second two options are easy to fill out, select the time duration you want to see sightings from and the name you would like for you gadget.

To find the locations ID's you will have to do a little work.

First go to the Bar Charts section of eBird.
Under My Locations select up to 10 locations to add to your gadget. Click Continue.
1. note- if you select personal hotspots only your observations will show so make sure you select public ones
Now comes the hard part. You will have to search in the url bar for a string of numbers following the letter L. You will probably have to scroll around to find it.
url bar with location ID selected
Copy this location ID (L191527 in this example is for Bald Eagle State Park). If you selected multiple sites in the previous step you will have to continue scrolling through the url bar to find them all. Just enter them into the Location IDs box with commas such as L191527,L355335,L4900221 and so on.

gadget with all input boxes filled in

Select save and your gadget should now be set up. You can go back through all the steps and make additional gadgets for all the locations you are interested in.

Hope this tutorial works for you. Let me know if there are any problems.

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Kevin Ryan

Thanks for this info—it was very helpful.

http://nemesisbird.com Drew

@Kevin- Thanks, the gadgets were pretty helpful for me and I thought others might like them as well.

Fran

Will try tutorial – in the meantime, saw a bufflehead at Colyer Lake, Monday, March 28th
Fran

am having trouble with the tutorial – have gotten as far as the Bar Charts section. Cannot find an option for “my locations”. There are locations there but I can’t seem to figure it out. Thanks!

http://nemesisbird.com Drew

The “My locations” portion only works if you are already submitting your checklists to eBird. If not you can always search for hotspots by selecting “Pennsylvania” above and then checking the option for “Hotspots in Pennsylvania”

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/DDolan1075/ DDolan1075

Hey Drew, Thanks! I am using it to watch High Island. I have posted an entry to my blog to refer people here.

http://nemesisbird.com Drew

Thanks!

Birdmoma0406

Your screen shot shows each location separately. When I loaded all of my hotspots, they are all in one screen. What do I do to get al lof my 4 locations to be shown separately?
Birdmoma0406

Never mind, the light bulb came on!!! I got now!
Zachary DeBruine

I’ve put together a very gourmet gadget as well: Interesting to see you’re doing something along the same lines! Did you use eBird’s source code on the APIs website?

My gadget on my blog:http://birdventure.blogspot.com/2011/11/work-still-in-progress-ebird-gadget-v34.html

My gadget on the Google directory:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/101708404408406792358/Recent_Bird_Sightings.xml

I currently have 525 users and exponentially exploding. I’m introducing new functionalities once a month. It’s really cool…

http://nemesisbird.com Drew

Zach, your gadgets definitely rock and keep getting better. I actually didn’t make the above gadget, just found it on the web somewhere and thought I would help other people use it easier. Keep up the great work!