For anyone who participates (or wants to) in the Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas 2, here is some updated information, and some resources to help you out.
BONUS: if you come up with questions, you can join us at our monthly meeting on February 4th, when Ellison Orcutt will be joining us to talk about this project. You can ask him directly! I know first hand how patient he is when answering questions. 😁
Melissa
Ashley Peele <ashpeele@vt.edu>: Jan 17 09:31AM -0500
Hi Folks,
We hope that you've been enjoying a restful and bird-filled holiday season. The winter months are flying by and it is already time for us to start thinking about the upcoming 4th season of the VA Breeding Bird Atlas
Project.
During the off-season, we've been busily working on plans and strategies to meet the goals of this ambitious project over our final two breeding seasons. Throughout few months, we will be sharing more information and guidance about how volunteers can be most impactful with their birding/atlasing time.
For now, we wanted to remind folks about resources pertaining to our earliest breeding bird species.
Members of the Atlas Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/VABBA2/) will know that breeding reports of Great-horned Owl and Bald Eagle are rolling in. Don't forget that these observations should go into the Atlas eBird portal (https://ebird.org/atlasva/home), so that your breeding evidence
observations make it in to the BBA database.
Here are a few articles with useful info about early-breeding species...
Atlasing After Dark
https://ebird.org/atlasva/news/atlasing-after-dark-an-introduction-to-nocturnal-surveysAmerican Woodcock, the Forest Species Few Have Seen
https://ebird.org/atlasva/news/american-woodcock-the-forest-species-few-have-seenThe Early Bird: Great Horned Owls
https://ebird.org/atlasva/news/the-early-bird-great-horned-owls
Stay warm and happy birding!
Ashley Peele, PhD
Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator
Conservation Management Institute - Virginia Tech
Office: 540-231-9182
Fax: 540-231-7019