Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:49:44 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Eastern Shore Stamp Co Subject: Re: Atlas Challange In-Reply-To: <008301c20760$8deefda0$9b7d4e0c@Norm1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Jim, Norm, etc. TICKING TIME'S A TICKING An "Atlas challenge"? Why not have a REAL Atlas challenge. Jim, I propose that you restrict your ticking to the Atlas safe date period for each species. In exchange for this severe restriction in ticking time you can COUNT TICKS IN EACH OF THE 1262 ATLAS BLOCKS (no quarterblocks)! If we assume an average of 80 species per block, this gives you 100960 possible ticks. But Jim, before you start drooling with the prospects, there's a hitch. YOUR TICK COUNTS ONLY IF A LIKE TICK IS NOT SUBMITTED BY THE VARIOUS LOCAL COUNTY ATLAS COORDINATOR ON THE FIELD CARDS SUBMITTED FOR THE YEAR. Alas, we will have to wait until the field cards are turned in at the end of the year to see how well you really did, Jim. But the challenge (if you accept it) will be doubly useful; you make money for the Atlas project (we hope) and you contribute additional useful field data. The only thing left to settle (if you agree to the challenge) is to determine the total tick threshold above which we start paying money into the pot. 5000? 10000? This proposal is for sponsors to pay $0.01 (or whatever) for each tick ABOVE the agreed upon threshold. There's method in my mad suggestion. Worcester, Somerset, and some western counties have very few assigned blocks so the most efficient use of time would be spent in those counties. Charlie Somerset County Atlas coordinator P.S. - it's will be considered unethical to discourage other birders from Atlasing this year. At 06:31 PM 5/29/02 -0400, you wrote: >Hi Jim! > >Whenever I hear you complain about how bad the birding is, I suspect >you are up to something. Did everyone else notice that amidst all his >complaints he never bothered to tell us how many birds he has actually >ticked off across the state so far this year? Do you think he's >laready surpassed the record of 3,322? Wouldn't surprise me, no not at >all.... > >Norm > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= Charles Vaughn 1306 Frederick Avenue Salisbury, MD 21801 stamps@sea-east.com OR stamps@dmv.com 410-742-7221 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================