Ever Heard of the Maritime Breeding Bird Atlas?

Contact info at end

The final field season for the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas is underway. Some or our year-round birds are already breeding and some of the early migrants are starting to arrive. This is a great time of the year to try to get around at dusk and see what you can hear. Just going out into my back yard in the last few weeks I have heard a barred owl calling (new to the square) and last night I had a northern saw-whet owl singing in the woods behind my house. That was a first for me! There are a lot of squares in Region 16 that are seeing the species for the first time. Are they in yours?


How is Region 16 Progressing? I have looked over the data for the region and am very happy with the work that you have all done, in coordination with the field teams from the atlas office. Out of the 21 priority squares in the region, 12 are finished (possibly 13 as one square's data from last year is still in progress) and the rest are reasonably close to completion. Of the 54 non-priority squares, 11 are completed, and another 10 only need point counts to complete them. There are squares that had no data in the first atlas that have lots of species reported this time around, and there are a lot of squares that can still use some work. So, what's the plan?


Priorities for 2010: Since this is the last field season for the atlas, you should have already gotten a set of forms and a letter outlining the main goals that still need to be met. The biggest thing for the final year will be to hope that some of the people who have squares which are completed, will want to move one and finish off another one, or do point counts is some that still need that finished.


There are three main things to keep in mind.


• You should let me know what you want to do as soon as possible so that we don't duplicate effort.
• I'm hoping people can fill out their data entry on-line in several batches throughout the season so that I can keep tabs on the progress of the squares.
• New species in squares is more important than bumping up breeding evidence.


See the next item for where the most work is needed. I'll also be sending notes to people who are still working on squares, in the next day or so, but if your square is done and you want to tackle something else. let me know!
Patrick Kelly




Maritime Breeding Bird Atlas

Regional Coordinator

Region 16 (Annapolis Valley—Digby Neck)




RR#2 159 Town Road

Falmouth NS B0P 1L0

Canada




(902) 472-2322 (h) (902) 494-3294 (w) (902) 423-6672 (f)