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awesome90220 wrote:When does the tree list come out for 2013?

Luo wrote:Any impressions of the Division C test? The test was very rushed, but the information was relatively basic, and my partner and I expected a better placing than what we got (24th).

butter side up wrote:

awesome90220 wrote:wait, was there an Audobon that was the entire US?

No, this was for States, so we only needed Eastern. But there were a lot of bugs on that test. Rather than do a station event, every team got their own station with a bucket of green, recently picked samples, labeled with numbers. Then the test was to ID each sample and answer a few ecology questions, and the tiebreaker was time. I actually liked that setup a lot. But there were a several bug questions on there, and on invite tests, so I knew that there were insects in the NWF. We didn't make it to nationals, so we didn't have the field guide dilemma.
I wish there was a whole US Audobon- I love it for ID, but like to have a second of a different sort for different pictures and information. Sometimes looking at the exact same picture of that maple trying to decide which one it is just doesn't want to happen, so a different book with different images helps. The cool thing about NWF is it has all the images for each tree on one page, so one doesn't have to flip back and forth to berries and fall leaves. I like that. It also has information on the same page as pictures. Saves me from tabbing like eight pages with my fingers while I try and figure out what I am looking at. However, I still haven't found a good way of using it as a primary ID, the way I can with the Audobon. I guess it might just be a matter of familiarity with the layouts.

CulturallyScientific wrote:

butter side up wrote:

awesome90220 wrote:wait, was there an Audobon that was the entire US?

No, this was for States, so we only needed Eastern. But there were a lot of bugs on that test. Rather than do a station event, every team got their own station with a bucket of green, recently picked samples, labeled with numbers. Then the test was to ID each sample and answer a few ecology questions, and the tiebreaker was time. I actually liked that setup a lot. But there were a several bug questions on there, and on invite tests, so I knew that there were insects in the NWF. We didn't make it to nationals, so we didn't have the field guide dilemma.
I wish there was a whole US Audobon- I love it for ID, but like to have a second of a different sort for different pictures and information. Sometimes looking at the exact same picture of that maple trying to decide which one it is just doesn't want to happen, so a different book with different images helps. The cool thing about NWF is it has all the images for each tree on one page, so one doesn't have to flip back and forth to berries and fall leaves. I like that. It also has information on the same page as pictures. Saves me from tabbing like eight pages with my fingers while I try and figure out what I am looking at. However, I still haven't found a good way of using it as a primary ID, the way I can with the Audobon. I guess it might just be a matter of familiarity with the layouts.

This is the first time I've heard of the bucket-of-specimens method. I find that while many of my events are station-based, I don't exactly prefer the format of a station test, so the bucket-of-specimens method actually sounds like a great setup. But wouldn't that be sort of circumventing the rules? They say that "Specimens...will be at stations" which is still technically true, but not really what a station event is meant to be like- so does it count? I would love to use that method for any other test, though.

BirdNerd3 wrote:Is writing in guide books allowed? It is not explicitly forbidden in the rules.

awesome90220 wrote:

BirdNerd3 wrote:Is writing in guide books allowed? It is not explicitly forbidden in the rules.

If you mean field guides, then you are allowed to write inbetween empty spaces in it( a useful tip I think I got from forever)