Hi everyone:
Breeding is in full swing and we are closing in on 100 species confirmed in Maine already! Here is another round of "challenges" for your atlasing effort and, as always, more information on the Maine Bird Atlas is available here: maine.gov/birdatlas
Before the challenges, here is a quick tip for eBirders: We strongly encourage creating personal locations rather than using hotspots with breeding records. Some hotspots are quite large and may cross multiple block boundaries, so using personal locations will help ensure that breeding species are plotted in the correct blocks. Here is an article I wrote to further explain this: https://ebird.org/atlasme/news/tips-borders
As usual, lets take a look at how we did with last week's challenges…
Mallards - Great work confirming these fuzz-balls around the state! We are up to 23 confirmed blocks and I bet that keeps jumping in the next few weeks. Canada Geese have really been spiking, now up to 74 confirmed blocks.
Chipping Sparrow - up to 20 confirmed blocks with an interestingly wide spread distribution around the state. Confirmed from York to Washington County but lots of gaps to be filled in.
Barn Swallow - Not a great showing for these birds over the past week, only being found in two more blocks. Tree Swallows jumped to 39 confirmed blocks though. Keep em coming!
NEW CHALLENGES:
1) European Starling - Seems like every starling I've seen this week has been carrying food in its beak so let's see if we can get them confirmed around the state. We are already at 64 blocks confirmed but a dedicated effort to enter sightings, even incidentals, should really fill in the map.
2) House Finch - I get way too many calls about these birds nesting on wreaths (and other random items) on porches for there to only be 11 confirmed blocks. See if you can find a nest or pass along to your non-birding friends that they should report these bird too.
3) Warblers - This is a tough group to confirm but there are some fun behaviors to look for right now. I've seen a few photos/videos of Black-throated Green and Chestnut-sided Warblers gathering webbing from Eastern Tent Caterpillar tents as nesting material over the past week - something to keep an eye out for!
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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