[Maine-birds] Winter Atlasing Report and Early Winter Challenge

Earlier this week, I joined Ian Carlsen, Ed Jenkins, Nick Lund, and Michael Tucker on a trip to Shirley for some winter atlasing. We mostly walked logging roads, then bushwhacked to access remote blocks, where we broke into groups to get three hours of effort and be able to cover different habitats. We managed to survey four blocks, with a total of 14 species, highlighted by a Black-backed Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadees in most blocks, and Canada Jays curiously looking for handouts. It was nice to encounter Purple Finches in decent numbers, which have been absent from the southern parts of the state this winter, and interesting to see them primarily feeding on birches.

The biggest highlight was probably the omnipresent White-winged Crossbills. There is an abundance of spruce cones which appears to be setting the crossbills up for winter breeding. Most of the males we encountered were singing and performing courtship flights, chasing females all over. Here is a recording I got of one male: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/198123761

Early Winter Challenge
Just like the atlas challenges we've done the last two summers, we've decided to incentivize winter atlasing by offering up some free items from the Maine Bird Atlas shop (https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3380076-maine-bird-atlas-logo). To qualify to win, you need to spend three hours in any block that doesn't have data (or isn't already complete in the first period) between now and the end of the first period (Jan 31st). Use the Maine Wintering Bird Atlas Dashboard (https://maine.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/88f5217da43144cd9eb1c2fbc5fbea4d) to find blocks that have no data (no shading), are incomplete with some data (yellow), or only complete in period 2 (pink). These certainly don't need to be as remote as those mentioned above! There are nearly 4,000 blocks around the state that still need effort. Submit your name, email, and the name(s) of the blocks you survey in the form linked below and we will randomly pick three winners in early February.
https://forms.gle/iHaEc7MY5u5CcApL6

And here is a link to blog post that might make the above urls easier to access:
https://ebird.org/me/news/winter-atlasing-report-and-early-winter-challenge

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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