Subject: [Tweeters] Change in date for Spring 2019 Klickitat County North American Migration date .. to be May 4th, 2019
Date: Sat Mar 9 15:03:51 PST 2019
From: B Boekelheide - bboek at olympus.net

Hi, Bob and Tweeters,

We have a similar problem here in Clallam County, where we have had a Spring Migration Count on the second Saturday in May since the early 1990s. Despite what eBird is doing, the second Saturday in May continues to be the traditional weekend of World Migratory Bird Day. So we're sticking with the second Saturday.

That extra week in May definitely makes a big difference up here along the northern tier of states (and even more further north in Canada), particularly for late spring migrants like Swainson's Thrushes, Willow Flycatchers, and Western Wood-Pewees. For us it also means another week of snow melt in the Olympics (or who knows, maybe it will snow even more this year?).

Guess people will have to go birding both Saturdays. Help Bob H in Klickitat County on May 4th, then help Bob B in Clallam County on May 11th.

Bob Boekelheide
Dungeness


From: Bob Hansen <bobhansen at gorge.net <mailto:bobhansen at gorge.net>>
Subject: [Tweeters] Change in date for Spring 2019 Klickitat County North American Migration date .. to be May 4th, 2019
Date: March 8, 2019 at 12:20:48 PM PST
To: Tweeters Posting <tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:tweeters at u.washington.edu>>

Folks,

Samuel Holman suggested that we move our Klickitat County North American Migration from the traditional 2nd Saturday in May ( May 11th this year) to May 4th to coincide with eBird's Big Day.

It is my understanding the North American Migration Counts began in the 1950's, possibly by someone working for the federal government in Washington, D.C. and then spread throughout the country on a county by county basis. Here is a link to my web site that described the beginning of North American Migration Counts ( http://community.gorge.net/birding/namcstasz.htm <http://community.gorge.net/birding/namcstasz.htm> ) . I first became aware of county-wide North American Migration Counts while living in Oregon in the 1990's. At that time there were still IBM data entry sheets being used that compilers would fill in by hand and postal mail to Jim Stasz in Maryland.

So it appears this may be a good time to have our Spring North American Migration Counts merge or blend together with eBird's Big Day. I am not sure moving up the count a week will change our results. Besides, we have over 20 years' data compiled on the 2nd Saturday of May… it will be interesting to compare with our 1st Saturday in May observations. In addition, by moving the count up a week, it avoids a conflict with Mother's Day weekend.

Let me know if you are able and want to participate in this year's May 4th count 🙏

Happy Birding,
Bob

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20190309/f7c5317a/attachment.html>