Maine Bird Atlas - Weekly Challenges, 5/29

[Doug Hitchcox]

Hi everyone:

Last week's results:
We are now over 40,000 checklists submitted for the breeding portion of the Maine Bird Atlas! Good effort on nuthatches this week: White-breasted picked up 5 new possible, 2 probable, and 7 confirmed blocks, while Red-breasted added 16, 3, and 7, respectively. Cowbirds were reported in at least 15 new blocks but we’ve got a bug to workout apparently under-reporting those records. And owls, always a tough challenge, added single confirmed blocks for Great Horned and Barred, but nice to see a handful of Barred blocks getting probable records too. Congrats to Debbie in Hollis, Ari from Portland, and Julie in Freeport for being chosen by excel’s random number generator as winners this week!

Here are the challenges for this week:

1) Canada Goose - little downy goslings can be coded as “FL - Recently Fledged Young” and we are seeing records popping up all over the state. See if you can confirm them in any new blocks this week: https://ebird.org/atlasme/map/cangoo

2) Ovenbird - we entered the safe dates for Ovenbirds on the 25th, so now all codes can be used. Good timing because I’m hearing them everywhere! Review their song (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ovenbird/sounds) and code what you see/hear. Reminder: most warblers' safe dates don’t begin until June 1st. Review safe dates before submitting possible records!

3) Bank Swallow - this species has apparently/preliminarily seen huge decline since the first atlas, but perhaps they are being overlooked? Spend some time this week checking around exposed dirt/sand banks or sand/gravel pits where these birds create burrow colonies. https://ebird.org/atlasme/map/banswa

Good birding and happy atlasing!


Doug Hitchcox
Maine Bird Atlas - Outreach Coordinator
Maine Audubon - Staff Naturalist
207-781-2330 x237
dhit...@maineaudubon.org