Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 04:21:44 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fran Saunders Subject: BBSer Needed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) program is soliciting one participant to sample the Walnut BBS route (46145) found in Wicomico County on the eastern shore of Maryland. If you are not familiar with the BBS, it is an international monitoring program that was initiated by Chan Robbins, and USFWS colleagues, in 1966 to track the status and trends of North American birds. These data now form the foundation of modern North American landbird conservation, and are used by numerous state and federal agencies, and conservation organizations, like Partners in Flight, to determine species of conservation concern at regional and national scales. However to keep the program strong, the U.S. Geological Survey needs the continued support of talented birders like those found in the Maryland Ornithological Society. Maryland has been blessed with many skilled and generous birders and we rarely have vacant BBS routes for long even though Maryland has the highest route density of any state -- about 14 routes per degree block. And we hope that history will again repeat itself and we will quickly find a new participant to fill the vacant Wicomico BBS route before the 2004 season begins. Each BBS route is 24.5 miles long and located along local roads. There are stops located at 0.5-mile intervals for a total of 50 stops. At each stop the participant conducts a 3-minute point count recording every bird seen within a 0.25-mile radius and every bird heard. Sampling starts 0.5 hour before local sunrise and takes approximately 4-5 hours to complete a route. Each route is sampled once per year during the height of the breeding season, early June for Maryland. Qualified applicants must be able to identify all birds in the area by sight and vocalizations, have good hearing and eyesight, and have access to suitable transportation to sample the route. If interested in contributing to this valuable avian conservation program by sampling the Wicomico BBS route (46145), please contact: Keith Pardieck USGS Patuxent Wildlife research Center 12100 Beech Forest Road Laurel, MD 20708-4038 keith_pardieck@usgs.gov 301-497-5843 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================