[Maine-birds] Maine Bird Atlas - Weekly Challenges, 7/19

Hi everyone:

Back as promised, it is time for another round of weekly challenges for the Maine Bird Atlas. See my original post if you need more background on these: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maine-birds/Xa2xS_JuIS0/Uf0PcLAhAgAJ

If you are new to the Atlas, it is a project by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that partners with Maine biologists and citizen scientists to document the distribution and relative abundance of all breeding and wintering birds across the entire state of Maine. You can learn more about the atlas, and find materials including the Volunteer Handbook here: maine.gov/birdatlas

A quick reminder: Please submit only eBird checklists that have at least one breeding code to the Maine Bird Atlas Portal (ebird.org/atlasme). All lists that do not have breeding codes should be entered to eBird (ebird.org) or the Maine eBird Portal (ebird.org/me).

Here are the challenges for this week:

1) Report ANY Confirmed Code - Starting off with an easy one. July is such a fun time to be atlasing because there is so much going on! Some birds have fledged and other species are still feeding young. At the same time, some are just getting started (see below) while others are on a second brood and doing things like nest building. Reporting ANY confirmed breeding code will get you in the running of this challenge.

2) American Goldfinch - Our latest nesting songbirds are really starting to show off now that thistle is emerging. Males are doing lots of aerial displays and there has been quite an uptick in the number of people reporting them carrying nesting material since the beginning of the month. These birds are so common that everyone should have a chance to watch them this week and spend a little to look for any probable or confirmed code (like CN-Carrying Nesting Material). You may find this 1950 Wilson Bulletin article by Allen Stokes on "Breeding Behavior of the Goldfinch" helpful: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v062n03/p0107-p0127.pdf

3) Chimney Swifts - These are a tough species to confirm and there are only currently only 17 blocks with confirmed records (50 probable, 107 possible). Refer to Page 7 of the latest newsletter (https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/maine-bird-atlas/docs/Black-capped%20Chronicle%20Issue%204%20SpringSummer%202019.pdf) for our article on "Tips for Species Difficult to Confirm" and learn how to confirm Chimney Swifts this week!

Anyone who completes one of the challenges above will be entered to win any item of their choice (any product, style, color, size, etc) from the Maine Bird Atlas online store: teepublic.com/user/mainebirdatlas/. One entry per person per challenge (complete them all for 3x the chances of winning) from checklists submitted by 11:59PM on 25 July 2019.

Good birding and happy atlasing!


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

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