Hi again Tweeters & Inland NW Birders -

Not the year list project this time, the blank checklist project!

I've just completed the latest update to the excel version of the WA
County Checklist , based recent updates to WA Birder. It has been a
long time since the last update went up, so a bunch of changes are
included.

This newest version of the excel-based county-by-county checklist of
Washington birds is available online, at:
http://www.wabirder.com/bartel_co_checklist.html


This version of the checklist is based on the latest updates of
county-firsts compiled by Ken & Laurie Knittle for Washington Birder,
and covering information gleaned through April 2010. It includes:

1. Revisions of all the Eastern Washington county checklists! Rather
than update one or two counties per quarter as has been done in the
past, Ken & Laurie Knittle worked with local experts and revised all
the Eastern WA counties this time around. If you have a particular
county you are interested in, the pdfs of the one-page checklists are
also updated & available on the WA birder site.

2. Checklist now sortable by Clements/Avisys order. I should have
added this long ago, but never thought of it. For all who use Avisys
& get annoyed by switching between the Clements & the AOU taxonomic
orders, you can now sort this checklist back & forth between either
ordering w/o trouble.

3. many many county firsts,

4. 2 new state birds - Greater Pewee & Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

If you are looking for a quick reference for how common a given
species is in any county, this excel file can be handy. Further, if
you are interested in keeping track of your county lists, this file
works as a checklist for each county and the state as a whole.

Thanks again to the Knittle's for making this data available in
Washington Birder, and thanks to those who have sent questions,
comments or suggestions. Let me know if you have any problems working
with the sheet or ideas for changes.



Finally, for anyone already using the old file who wants instructions
on how to transfer your information from that one to this new one,
read on (for everyone else, I'd recommend skipping the dry
instructions that follow).

Short version: Use the the same tax order to sort both your old file
and the new one. In your old file, add blank lines the where new
species will be inserted. Copy the color-coded cells portion of old
file, and paste "values" only into the new file [using
paste-special].

Longer Step-by-step Explanation:

1. Download newest file from webpage [save under a different name
than your own file]

2. Open both the new file and your old one.

3. Make sure both old and new files are sorted according to the same
taxonomic order . To do this, select the entire file and click
'sort' from the 'Data' menu. Check the box for Header Row, then
select the desired sort order in the top box, with the default
setting of Ascending selected.

4. On your [old] file, insert blank rows [using the 'rows' option on
the Insert menu] where new species will be added. For this April 2010
update, the most recent additions are Greater Pewee & Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher. To add space for Greater Pewee, add a row between
Olive-sided Flycatcher & Western Wood-Pewee. To add Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher, insert a row between Western Wood-Pewee & Alder
Flycatcher. (You don't need to do anything to these new rows after
adding them -- they are just space-holders to allow for smooth
pasting of your data into the new file.)

Those changes will leave your data ready for transfer.

6. On your [old] file, highlight all of the cells that have the color
coding in them and press control-C to copy this section [or use the
'copy' option from the Edit menu]. In the present file (once you've
added the blank rows for the new state species) this would be all the
cells from F4 to AS506.

7. Click on the G4 box of the new file, and then choose 'paste
special' from the edit menu. In the dialogue box that opens, select
'values' under the paste section [instead of 'all']. It is important
to paste only the values -- otherwise you will bring over all the old
color codes too!

All your data should be pasted into the new file.


8. Do some double checking to ensure the formulas are adding up to
the same numbers they did in the old file. Also check to be sure you
haven't brought over the old color codes [check a new 'county first'
like the Franklin County Yellow-bellied Flycatcher to ensure you have
the color codes from the newest version in place]

That should do it. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions --

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA