Hello all!

Michael Hobbs and I have updated the WA Birder Excel spreadsheet and the one page county checklists for the new year, and Michael has incorporated a big new enhancement this time around...

The Excel checklist combines all the county codes in a sheet that allows you to tally your county totals [and do a bunch of other fun things]. Both the 'enhanced' version and the plain version are available at the Washington Birder website at:

http://wabirder.com/combined_county_list.html <http://wabirder.com/combined_county_list.html>

New this year: If you've entered your lists on the excel spreadsheet, now you can create a single page checklist for any county that marks off all the birds you've seen while still showing the entire county list -; essentially, you can get a pre-filled one page checklist w/ all your "X's" filled in. Very cool addition that Michael coded up - I highly recommend.

Also new this year, in addition to three state firsts and many county firsts, several counties had their codes updated.

Background:
Every year since 2003 I've updated this checklist, adding new species and county firsts, and revising it to comply with the latest taxonomic updates produced by the AOU & ABA. This year, the taxonomic sequence changed a bit again -;the plovers, swallows and sparrows in particular are seeing new orders. In addition, the checkist can be sorted by the eBird sort order -; that's updated as well to match the more recent sort order [one that comes closer to agreeing with the AOU order]

If you are looking for a color-coded way to track your county lists and/or see how abundant any species is in a given county, give the list a try.

With the 'enhanced' spreadsheet, you can generate county needs lists, see which counties you've seen or need any given species, and more. Instructions on using the spreadsheet are on the same page <http://wabirder.com/combined_county_list.html> linked above.

Instructions on transferring your data from an older copy of your spreadsheet to the new one are included at the website as well.

The one page pdf blank county checklists are available at the following link: http://wabirder.com/county_map.html <http://wabirder.com/county_map.html>
If you want to move away from the screen and enjoy some time filling in checks on a list, print out a few county lists and start marking it up.


Finally, a reminder that your 2019 totals are due -; I'd encourage everyone to take some time and fill out the portions you track. It is always a great community event to pull this info together into one annual report we can share.
List Report (and Big Day) forms are available on the Washington Birder website: http://www.wabirder.com/forms.html <http://www.wabirder.com/forms.html>
[I'm going to be filling mine in today]


We look forward to feedback or suggestions, and would be happy to help troubleshoot problems if you run across them.



Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA
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