[Maine-birds] Maine Bird Atlas - Weekly Challenges, 7/11

Hi everyone:

Last week's results:

A nice show of Cedar Waxwing records, most of which were carrying nesting material or nest building, but also interesting to see several that were already feeding young. 10 new blocks with confirmed records were picked up this week - nicely done! Most impressive, to me, is the 21 additional Priority Blocks completed since Monday. I was tempted to make all three challenges the "Priority Block Challenge" to emphasize the importance, but I'll keep this more interest. Anyways, keep up the great work in Priority Blocks! And the "hard" challenge may have been too hard, as Tennessee Warbler remains confirmed in only one block. Congratulations to Becky in North Yarmouth and Jeff in Damariscotta for being chosen by Excel's random number generator as winners this week!

Here are the challenges for this week:

1) House Sparrow - we've had challenges with northern and southern biases, so now one for volunteers in more developed areas. Non-native species count for the atlas too, and House Sparrows could be on their third or fourth brood by now.

2) Priority Block Challenge - Repeating this from last week because this is our priority for the project: We really need volunteers spending time competing Priority Blocks. Take a look at the Atlas Effort Map (https://ebird.org/atlasme/effortmap), find a priority block, go atlasing a morning or two this week, revisit 7+ days later to easily bump possible to probable records, and you're making great progress to completing the block! To track this challenge, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/tobv2xBvW82N3BAW9

3) Chimney Swifts - This weeks "hard" challenge is maybe easier than you think. Any easy way to confirm Chimney Swifts is using ON-Occupied Nest if you see a bird leaving or entering a chimney (or natural site) and whose behavior suggests the presence of an occupied nest. You don't need to actually observe their nest in this case (we don't want you climbing your neighbor's roof just to confirm the record).

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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