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Subject:

Great Horned Owls are Atlas "safe" tomorrow (15 Dec)

From:

Walter Ellison

Reply-To:

Walter Ellison

Date:

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 16:36:20 -0500

Hi All,

I am wearing my State Atlas Coordinator's hat today. Tomorrow commences atlas safe dates for Great Horned Owl. This means there are two "atlas safe" (i.e. countable as possible) birds starting tomorrow: the owl and the Rock Pigeon. The pigeon is atlas-safe year-round, indeed there are most likely a number of pairs raising young at this very moment.

At present reviewed atlas data shows that, after four years of field work, Great Horned Owl has been found in 183 fewer blocks than in the last (1983-1987) atlas project, and the Rock Pigeon has been found in 217 fewer blocks. In order to strengthen the suspicion that these two widespread and still common birds have lost so much ground in their Maryland and D.C. breeding ranges we need observers to make every effort to find them in blocks where they are currently "missing".

Christmas Bird Counts also started today, observers who are counting over the next three weeks should make every effort to ascertain if they have found Great Horned Owls or pigeons in new blocks as they count. You can find the atlas data for the owl and pigeon at the Patuxent Maryland atlas page,
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bba/index.cfm?fa=explore.ResultsBySpecies. Make sure you check the box "include 1983 data" so you get the comparison among blocks (you need to know the blocks lacking the birds). It also helps to outline atlas blocks onto CBC route maps - say in an ADV county street atlas map or onto a DeLorme atlas map (smaller scale, but more blocks per map). Consult with your local county coordinator (http://www.mdbirds.org/atlas/coord.html) about block boundaries or keep track of the map "addresses" of your owls (remember a hooting pair is a "P" probable) and pigeons. 

Thanks to everybody who makes the effort. It will help us figure out the true population trends of these birds. One more year; we're going to make it.

Good Christmas Counting,

Walter Ellison
MD-DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS
23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail: 

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")

"Are there *ever* enough birds?" - Connie Hagar as quoted by Edwin Way Teale in "Wandering through Winter"