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!