Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 09:36:30 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Re: Safe Dates MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bob covered this issue really well, I wanted to add one further point. Birds seen showing *clear* breeding behavior, particularly behavior that confirms breeding are fair game even outside the safe dates. This can become a bit subtle for the codes for probable nesting. I recently saw a male and a female kingfisher in the same area but decided against calling them a pair because they were not interacting with each other, in this case the safe dates acted as a check on my desire to use an atlas code. Use your best judgement when you believe you see breeding activities outside of the safe dates in the handbook. Good birding, Walter Ellison State Atlas Coordinator ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Ringler" To: Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 10:03 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================