With the end of the year comes the end of Early Winter data collection for the atlas. There’s still a little time, for owls at least, but now it’s just a matter of sharing any lingering eBird checklists or mailing in data forms so that we can wrap things up for that, penultimate, portion of the project.
Two months ago, we still had lots of gaping holes in our attempt to get a decent number of surveys in every block. Thanks to the great efforts of many people, and the truly exceptional efforts of a distinct few, we’ve managed to fill most of those gaps and will end the atlas with a impressive statewide sampling of Connecticut’s early winter birds.
Now, we need to do the same for the late winter.
As we’ve done previously, we have highlighted those blocks that are our absolute top priorities (click here to see a larger format map):
Yellow blocks are those that have less than an hour of survey effort; in some cases, no data at all. Those in orange have less than 3 hours. Our minimum goal is to get all of these blocks over the 3-hour mark. Of course, our ideal is to get all blocks to a total of 10 hours across all years of the atlas, so there is useful work that can be done in any blocks that are not marked as 100% complete in this second map:
Our priorities, though, are the blocks that are not even close, as visits to those sites will maximize the amount of new information about the state’s birds. Unfortunately, January 2022 looks like it will be another month in which it will be best for social activities to be outside, and in (very) small groups. So, meeting up with a birding friend for a walk in one of the lesser-known parts of the state might be a good way to get a birding fix, while staying safe, and also helping with the final 2 months of atlas field work.