2012 Effort Recommendations - BC Breeding Bird Atlas

Updated - 31-May-2012

Following is a summary of recommended squares to finish off in 2012 for the British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas in Region 1 Southern Trench.

Please contact me or Greg Ross if you are planning on doing any atlassing in the Region. You can dig up our emails off the Breeding Bird Atlas website (or respond to this email if you are receiving this through your BBA email).

This table can also be viewed on Google Docs at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e3fMdjetixnnRpctAUbvp7ZO9wRTh29N6tqzKZ2TQ7Q/edit

You can just Google the square number to get to the existing BBA data.

PS - I have not submitted this to Christopher yet, hehe, so there may be some edits to this. I will let you know if there are. ^ ~ ^

Region 1 Breeding Bird Atlas
2012 Square Recommendations – prepared  by Dianne Cooper

Square	Name	PC / BE to Go	Comment	Priority	Atlasser as of 11 Mar 2012
11NQ76	Moyie Range North	3 / 3	High priority	2
11NQ77	Lumberton Mid / Negro Lake	10 / 4	High priority	4
11NQ86	Moyie Lake North	10 / 6	Easy one	4	Patrick S.
11NQ87	Hidden Valley	9 / 0	13 hrs BE done, high priority	5
11NQ89	Cranbrook Airport	4 / 0	24 hrs BE done	5	Dianne C.
11NR75	Findlay Creek FSR Mid E	9 / 0	20 hrs BE done	3
11NR80	LD Ranch Rd	8 / 6	High priority	5	Done
11NR82	Moen Rd	1 / 0	17 hrs BE done	5	Dianne C.
11NR83	Larchwood Lake	10 / 10	Easy one	4
11NR85	Canal Flats	7 / 5	High priority	5
11NR90	Bummer's Flats	8 / 0	27 hrs BE done	5	Done
11NR92	Skookumchuck Prairie	4 / 6	High priority	5	Dianne C.
11PQ04	Cherry Lake	4 / 5		1	Greg & D. C.
11PQ16	Colvalli Road	5 / 6	High priority	2
11PQ17	Wardner	7 / 0	13 hrs BE done	5	Done
11PQ18	Bull River	10 / 8		5	(Greg R.)
11PQ24	Englishman Creek Newgate	10 / 4	High priority	5	Dean N.
11PQ34	Dorr Cut Off Road	10 / 0	14 hrs BE done	5
11PQ35	Baynes Lake East	10 / 10	Easy one	5	Dean N.
11PQ49	Fernie E	5 / 0	29 hrs BE done	3	Kevin K.
11QQ13	Kishinena Peak	6 / 4		1
11PR50	Michel - Olson	10 / 6		2
11PR51	Sparwood	10 / 10			Kevin K.
11PR54	Fording R Rd S	10 / 0	10 hrs BE done	3
11PR60	McGillivray	10 / 8		4

Here is what has been done so far, and what could still be done.

Dark red = Breeding Evidence done to 10 hour-standard.

Diagonal lines = Point Counts done to 10 pc-standard

Light red = some Breeding Evidence done

Green square = recommend we finish these off

Yellow flower = easily accessible square begging attention.

You may access these on my flickr - links below - where you can download (warning - large file), or at least view "original" size, to zoom in. Resolution should be good enough for you to see place names.

Block NQ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kestrelm/6972955615/

Block NR http://www.flickr.com/photos/kestrelm/6826841756/

Block PQ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kestrelm/6972960515/

Block PR http://www.flickr.com/photos/kestrelm/6972962631/

Thank you so much! - to everyone who has contributed to this provincial effort. Did you have some adventures - like me? Wasn't it fun! - snooping around with a purpose. Did you learn some new birdsong?

And more importantly, do you feel the satisfaction in knowing you have contributed to the knowledge and awareness of not only avian distribution but also to our stewardship of Gaia (my word for the terran bioshere) through whatever this data is going to be used for in the future?

Happy atlassing!

Atlassers to 2012

G. Ross atlassing at newly discovered Bank Swallow Colony

The British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas is on its last year this year – 2012 – wow. I doubt I will be around for the next one.

I know we have to be motivated by our own satisfaction mostly (fun, thrill-seeking bunch that we are),  but I am sure our efforts are greatly appreciated by the organizers, the birds, and Gaia –  the biosphere.

Region 1 – Southern Trench – Atlassers

Since the BCBBA website lists the top 10 contributors (and their intrepid assistants) to date for the province, I thought I would mention some of the atlassers in our area  – Region 1: Southern Trench – and send them a BIG THX!

# atlassers registered		65
# of point counters		10
top point counter		Kevin Knight, Fernie, BC – 165
honourable mentions,  +70 counts		D. Nicholson, D. Cooper, C. Di Corrado
# of breeding evidence (BE) counters		51
top BE counter		Dianne Cooper (moi) – 66 forms
top 10 BE counters		D. Nicholson, K. Knight, K. Stuart-Smith, C. Di Corrado, J. Fenneman, G. Ross, A. Bartels, M. Machmer, P. Ohanjanian
farthest travelling to atlass		from Corvallis, Oregon

Thank you in different ways to our local atlassers, also to those who have gone out of their home regions to snoop on the birds and contribute, and, of course, to the organizers and data crunchers, and inspirers.  I hope you have another great year atlassing.

Brief Superficial Regional Comparison

As far as comparing atlassing efforts by region, I am happy to see two non-“Lower Mainland” regions in the “Top 5” for hours spent atlassing: the Peace Region and the West Kootenay Region.

It is a very large province with a tendency toward “Lower Mainland”-centricity, as far as humans are concerned.  The Peace, of course, being on the other side of the Rockies, is the place to document eastern species in our political area – a coveted dream for many birders, especially listers. The seabirds and shorebirds of the Coast are indeed wonderful; as are the incursion of southern species into the Okanagan and beyond.

Species-wise – the region with the highest number of species (according to the online data summaries) is the Chilcotin – with 213 – and the lowest is Haida Gwaii – with 83 species.

The Southern Trench ranks 8^th in number of species and 13^th in number of hours. Way to Go! Yay!

K. Knight, #1 point counter in typical higher elevation habitat for our region.

Upcoming blog posts will show you with maps jpeg’s where you can go to atlass most effectively in the Southern Trench. ^_^

Happy birding!