Illinois Stopover Point Count 2026 Program

[Bob Fisher]

IBETers, you may have already seen this on Discord's conservation and monitoring channel, but just in case...

 

The Bird Conservation Network (BCN) is delighted to partner with Ward Lab/University of Illinois on a project to investigate the high-density stopover areas for our migrating birds that their radar migration tracking has identified. The project needs birders to count species at eBird hotspots where high density concentrations show up on radar. The aim: Compare radar data to on-the-ground data for migration stopover locations across Illinois.

 

A Zoom meeting on Monday, April 20, at 6:30 pm will explain this new project and how volunteer birders can help. As an overview, you count three times at a minimum of two sites from April 21 to May 21. Each count will take about an hour. You can pick any sites from the study map and any days you want to count. Details on the count protocol itself will be available at the webinar.

 

Here's the map that shows the six radar tracking areas in Illinois and the eBird hot spots included in the study > https://univofillinois.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=9a0b6bb9e7aa485f9e0aa3b364c96f19

 

Use this link to join the Zoom meeting on Monday at 6:30 pm > https://illinois.zoom.us/j/84598205260?pwd=RiRRnMc4vHmVr60SHwekaICZFKlbze.1

 

The webinar will be recorded and the link to the recording will be posted on IBET as soon as as it's available - so if you can't attend tomorrow's zoom, you can view the recording and still participate in the

Regards
Bob Fisher, Communications Chair
Bird Conservation Network
me...@bcnbirds.org