Hear ye, hear ye:

After much discussion with Phil Mattocks, he and I have decided to
publish the Washington Breeding Bird Atlas within one year. This means
that the final statewide data collection will have been completed this
summer 1995. Thanks to all those who wrote me about collecting data in
1996, but Phil and I both feel this project needs to come to a close. My
UW money runs out in one year, and that project is closely tied to the
BBA. Also, Phil needs to also get on with his life. The atlas was
originally conceived as a 5-year project, with the final field season as
1991. Poor coverage necessitated extending it these additional years.
Anyway, I won't go on about the reasons, but there will be no more field
seasons, and a volume will be published within one year. So here's what
I would like from all tweeters:

Any and all nesting records, or probable breeding areas of species you
have noted since 1986. If you have done any atlassing, please dig around
in your notes and send in those cards. If you keep records, and haven't
sent them in as BBA records, please submit those. The records can be
submitted on atlas cards snail-mailed to me, or you can send them via
e-mail as a comma-delimited text file (CSV in Microsoft Excel), in the
following format:

Species name, year, Township/Range, Quad, Hours (spent in quad),Observed,
Possible, Probable, Confirmed

The township/range should be in this format: T09R14E
Quad is the quarter of the township: NE, NW, SE, or SW
Hours should be decimal units (14.5)
In place of observed/possible/probable/confirmed, substitute a '1' if you
have recorded the species in that category (defined farther below).

*Hypothetical* example: I have seen an Eared Trogon enter a nest cavity
at the Stevens Pass ski area in 1990, after birding this quad for 2.5
hours (lucky me!). Here's how it should be entered:

Eared Trogon,1990,T26R14E,NE,2.5,,,1,

Evidence levels:
Observed: seen only, no evidence of nesting
Possible: singing male, species present in suitable habitat during
breeding season
Probable: pair in suitable habitat, seven or more singing mails, nest
building, entering nest cavity, copulation, territoriality, courtship
behavior, agitated behavior from adults
Confirmed: brood patch, distraction display, recently fledged young,
occupied nest, adult bringing food to nest, adult removing fecal sac from
nest, nest with eggs or young seen.

If you have atlas cards, snail-mail them to me:

Mike Smith
Fisheries, Box 357980
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7980

or if you have records and want cards to enter them on, e-mail me with
you snail-address and I'll mail them.

NOTE that I would prefer e-mail contributions.

Thanks to all...


PS: Gene Hunn may extend his King Co. atlas project through 1996, so if
you want to contribute with fieldwork, contact him (hunn at u.washington.edu)

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html