Saturday, 8 March 2014

[Maine-birds] Re: Spring arrival date study

Hi Herb Wilson,
    I would like to contribute "first sightings" data for your bird migration study.
   My husband and I keep lists, making a record almost every day of the birds we see here in Maine, at our home on Mt Desert Island or at our camp near Roque Bluffs in Washington County. Wally has lists of his first-of-season sightings that go back to the 1980s. We can tell you what day the Fox Sparrows were first seen by us in our Town Hill yard every year since 2002. And probably 5 years of first dates for the Palm Warbler. Would any of this information be helpful?
   Wally can tell you what year he first heard the Hermit Thrush at Roque Bluffs (Cow Point). Up to that time we only had the Swainson's in our yard. In fact, we are quite worried that the Hermit may replace the Swainson's, which is one of our favorite birds and has sung morning and evening at Cow Point since 1985.
    If you would like me to help I will try to download some data sheets from on-line. Is there a website with more details?
    This is a different topic, but I would love to participate in the Maine Butterfly Survey again this year, if that is possible. If that is a good idea I would need to know how to get updated permission forms, more materials, etc. Most important, is it necessary to collect or document any butterfly in the same place where it was collected last year? For example, does the study need any other Hobomok Skipper or Great Spangled Fritillary from my yard? I hate to harm anything needlessly. Also, I had dozens of unknown (to me) little spring blue things and drab skippers. What to do about those things that I cannot identify? Perhaps I am unwittingly wiping out an entire population of something that is the lep. species equivalent of the passenger pigeon. Thanks for any advice.
   Our yard is great for moths, caddisflys, tipulae and any other creatures that love bad drainage and year-round "vernal" pools. So if anyone does a data study on these insects and needs non-professional help, please let me know.
    Thank you,  Carol Muth, Bar Harbor
  

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 1:41:59 PM UTC-5, Herb Wilson wrote:
Hello, 

As many of you know, I have been coordinating a project to document the first arrival of migratory breeding birds across the state of Maine for the past 20 years.  Well over 250 birders from all around the state have contributed data.  We have learned much about the nature of Maine bird migration from this citizen-science project.  The data also have provided insight into the impacts of climate change on our bird fauna.  You can download copies of research papers on the data at http://web.colby.edu/whwilson/publications/ 

I recently mailed out 2014 datasheets to all birders that contributed data for 2013 along with the summary for the 2013 migration. 

If you have not participated, I hope you will consider doing so in the 21st year of the project.  All I ask is that you record the first date you see any of about 140 migratory breeding birds in your part of the state.  If you would like to participate, send me an e-mail giving your snail mail address and I will put a set of datasheets in the mail for you.  I can also send the datasheets electronically as a Word file. 

Best wishes, 

Herb 


Dr. Herb Wilson 
Department of Biology 
5739 Mayflower Hill Drive 
Colby College 
Waterville, ME  04901 

Phone:        (207) 859-5739                E-mail: whwi...@colby.edu 
FAX:           (207) 859-5705 
Web sites:    http://web.colby.edu/whwilson/ 
                   http://web.colby.edu/mainebirds/ 

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.  
Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

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