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> even better in the following year! Thanks again to a Hi Kate, Thanks for the clarification -- so mostly it really was about checklists/sampling not about counting the RBs themselves -- obviously I hadn't been following this thread. I did appreciate the one about eBird 1959. Steve ________________________________________ From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on behalf of Kate Steele [katefsteele@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 2:46 PM To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz final results Hi Steve, Good question. If you haven't been following my posts about the Blitz, what I posted this afternoon certainly would not make a whole lot of sense! The point of the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz is multifaceted. The Blitz is hoping to gather more information on the spring migration habits and habitat preferences of this species which has faced a drastic decline (estimated 85-95% in the past 40 years), if there are migration routes used by these birds year after year and if there are areas where they congregate in large numbers during spring migration. The Blitz is also an effort to raise awareness of this species and its sharp decline in population which is not well-understood. It is also a way to encourage bird watchers to contribute their data to eBird, which means contributing data that is accessible to anyone who would like to use it. The number of checklists submitted to eBird is increasing [which makes sense as eBird (and our access to the Internet) becomes more well-known and gains in popularity], so naturally the number of Rusty Blackbirds reported to eBird will increase along with it. There were likely very few Rusty Blackbirds reported to eBird in 1959, which of course doesn't mean there were fewer Rusty Blackbirds around at that time. The point of all of the information regarding checklists is to provide information on how many Rusty Blackbirds were reported using the Blitz protocol vs. not using the Blitz protocol (i.e. how well did we do getting the word out about the Blitz and encouraging people to submit their sightings?), how many checklists where people were looking for Rusty Blackbirds but not finding them (i.e. appropriate habitat not being used, or habitat previously used by Rusty Blackbirds now being used by Common Grackles), etc. Part of reporting to eBird via the Blitz protocol means you are encouraged to include valuable information on habitat, behaviour, vocalizations, etc. to enrich the data, instead of just a sighting (the bird could have been flying over vs. carrying nesting material). So, in short, the point of the Blitz is not to count the Rusty Blackbirds - we know they are in decline - but to determine more detailed information about the birds during the spring migration period. This was the first year of a three year initiative, so no trends could be determined at this time. That being said, the email from the International coordinator that I received said that there will be another email coming soon with more information regarding how they will be using the data, so I can always post this to the NatureNS listserv when it becomes available as well. Hope that's helpful and not too long of a response! Kate On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca<mailto:srshaw@dal.ca>> wrote: I'm confused by this, though maybe I'm mis-reading it. There is a lot of information in the post about the number of checklists increasing, but presumable what you really want to know is if the number of RBs is increasing or not, not the number of checklists (i.e. total number of RBs reported, divided by the number of checklists submitted, in each case). Are the RBs increasing, on that basis, or what? Steve ________________________________________ From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca> [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>] on behalf of Kate Steele [katefsteele@gmail.com<mailto:katefsteele@gmail.com>] Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 1:24 PM To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>; NS-RBA@yahoogroups.com<mailto:NS-RBA@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [NatureNS] Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz final results Hi everyone, I received the final tallies for the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz from the International coordinator yesterday. There is lots of information included in an Excel spreadsheet, so if anyone would like a copy, just let me know and I will forward it along. Here are some points from Nova Scotia that I found interesting: -- Nova Scotia submitted 39 checklists via the Blitz protocol (not the best in comparison to other provinces and states, but not the worst!) -- During the Blitz period (March 1 - June 15) Nova Scotians submitted 23 checklists with at least one Rusty Blackbird reported - eight in March, one in April, 14 in May, and none in June. -- Rusty Blackbird observation in Nova Scotia during the 2014 spring season was up 188% (!) compared to 2013 (8 in 2013 vs. 23 in 2014). Here are a few points of interest I copied from the International coordinator's email that might be of interest to some: During the official Blitz dates (1 March-15 June 2014), a total of 14,865 checklists that contained at least one Rusty Blackbird observation were reported to eBird. New York, Ontario, and Ohio had the greatest number of individual checklists with Rusties reported, with 1980, 2179, and 1183 checklists, respectively. The majority of these checklists were reported as Traveling Counts (9849 checklists) or Stationary Counts (2183 checklists). Only 1586 of these observations were submitted under the Rusty Blackbird Blitz protocol. 3238 total checklists were submitted under the Rusty Blackbird Blitz protocol; just over half of these (1652) did not contain a report of a Rusty Blackbird sighting. The greatest number of Rusty Blackbird Blitz checklists were submitted in Maryland (410 checklists), New York (377 checklists) and Virginia (315 checklists). In Canada, Ontario birders submitted the greatest number of Blitz checklists (132), with the second-highest number of Blitz checklists submitted in the Yukon (85). The number of checklists with Rusty Blackbird observations increased 62% in 2014, compared with the same time period in 2013. Only 9170 checklists with Rusty observations were reported from March 1-June 15 in 2013, 5695 fewer than during the first year of the Blitz. Only three states/territories participating in the Blitz did not show an increase in the number of checklists reported containing Rusty Blackbird observations. The number of checklists containing Rusty Blackbird observations increased the most in Québec from 2013 to 2014; Québec birders submitted 857 checklists with Rusty Blackbirds in 2014, compared with the same period in 2013. New York and Ontario were second and third, with 644 and 477 more checklists, respectively. So, it's good to see that Nova Scotians made an effort in the first year of the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz, but it is a three year initiative and I am confident in our ability to do better next year, and even better in the following year! Thanks again to all of those who participated (whether you found Rusty Blackbirds or not!) or expressed an interest in the Blitz! Kate Steele NS Coordinator - Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz katefsteele@gmail.com<mailto:katefsteele@gmail.com><mailto:katefsteele@gmail.com<mailto:katefsteele@gmail.com>> (902) 476-2883<tel:%28902%29%20476-2883><tel:%28902%29%20476-2883>
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