Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 08:06:27 -0600 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Re: Safe Dates MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bob Thanks for answering the safe date question. I was away again. George ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Ringler" To: Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 9:03 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Safe Dates Just a brief word on the term "safe dates". Safe dates are used in the breeding bird atlas to indicate times when a species is presumed to be breeding rather than migrating. These dates are listed in the Atlas handbook. Not all MOS chapters have had an atlas training session so not all the handbooks have been distributed. There may be a copy on the MOS website. Nearly every species is migratory to some extent, or has a post-breeding dispersal. The dates we have chosen aren't perfect but should eliminate most of the questionable sightings relative to the observation date. As for House Sparrow, I recall an October day at Hart-Miller when we heard one overhead and watched it drop from the sky into the marsh, presumably a migrant. But safe dates for House Sparrows are rather superfluous because they are so easy to confirm as breeders and this can be done on any date, even outside the safe dates. I hope the training sessions will be able to answer most of the questions on this subject. Bob Ringler Eldersburg, Md ringler@qis.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================