Big Atlas Weekend - June 24-26, 2022
If this year’s “Global Big Day” didn’t fit into your busy spring schedule, here’s another chance to make your birding count! How about a Big Atlas Weekend? This exciting annual event is a fun way for birders from across the province to document breeding birds and come together as a birding community. For many birds in our area, breeding peaks in late June. It’s a great time to Confirm breeding and fill gaps in the Atlas dataset.
This event is being coordinated across four states and two provinces that are currently conducting breeding bird atlases—Newfoundland, Ontario, New York, Maine, Maryland and DC, and North Carolina.
Schedule
- June 22 @ 6 pm EDT – Kickoff. Introduction by the six Atlas coordinators followed by guest speaker Robyn Bailey, Project Leader at NestWatch. Robyn will be talking about how the data NestWatch collects both complement and differ from atlas data, what kinds of questions NestWatch is answering with those data, and best practices for making high-quality observations on nesting birds. (registration required; click this link to register).
- June 23 @ 7pm EDT – Sappy Hour. We’ll be hosting a Sappy Hour to give updates on upcoming surveys (Long-eared Owl and Nightjar) as well as to answer any atlassing questions. (registration required; click this link to register)
- June 24-26 – Big Atlas Weekend! Go atlassing in any of the six participating states/provinces from 6 pm EDT on Friday to 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday.
- June 29 @ 6 pm EDT – Awards ceremony. Enjoy highlights from the weekend, share your stories in small groups with atlassers from all states/provinces, and find out who won the individual and state/provincial champion awards. (registration required; click this link to register).
How to Participate
Go atlassing between 6:00 pm EDT Friday, June 24 and 11:59 pm EDT Sunday, June 26 and submit your checklist through the NatureCounts App or Web Portal. This video gives an overview of submitting data through the NatureCounts Web Portal, eBird import, and through the NatureCounts App
If you are new to atlassing, check out the recordings from our 2022 Kick-off weekend, head to the website for more resources. If you’re an avid eBird user, but new to Atlas-3, check out our eBird and Atlas-3 page!
Challenges and Prizes
The Big Atlas Weekend will have prize opportunities for atlassers of all skill levels, ranging from first-timers to veterans. One prize winner will be randomly selected in each of the following categories to win a Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Academy course of their choosing. Each Atlas will also select an MVA–most valuable atlasser!
- Complete Atlas checklist (with breeding evidence included) in a square that you have not atlassed before
- A complete checklist is one where you report all the birds you were able to identify and answer “yes” to the question “Are you reporting all of the birds you were able to identify?”.
- Species with breeding evidence reported that were not reported with breeding evidence in that square before the Big Atlas Weekend
- Learn about breeding codes in Appendix G of the instruction manual or watch a video.
- Complete Atlas checklist with at least one species with Confirmed breeding evidence
- Learn about breeding codes in Appendix G of the instruction manual or watch a video.
- Complete Atlas checklist with nocturnal effort
- A complete checklist is one where you report all the birds you were able to identify and answer “yes” to the question “Are you reporting all of the birds you were able to identify?”.
- A nocturnal checklist is considered to be a checklist that begins between 20 minutes after sunset and 40 minutes before sunrise.
- Complete Atlas checklist with at least one significant species with breeding evidence.
- Learn about significant species in Appendix K of the instruction manual or watch a video..
- Complete Atlas checklist in a square with less than 20 hours of atlassing in the peak season
- Peak atlas season is May 24-July 10 in southern Ontario, June 1-July 10 in northern Ontario.
- A complete checklist is one where you report all the birds you were able to identify and answer “yes” to the question “Are you reporting all of the birds you were able to identify?”.
- Explore the Atlas coverage map to see the amount of effort per square.
Inter-atlas Competition
Just to make this event even more exciting, the Atlas team has set up a friendly competition between the six participating projects—Newfoundland, Ontario, New York, Maine, Maryland and DC, and North Carolina. The winning project will receive the Big Atlas Weekend trophy and have their state or province engraved on the side. Maine took it home last year; who will get it this year??
The winning atlas will be selected based on their rank in each of three inter-atlas challenges, standardized across atlases. The atlas with the highest cumulative rank will become the overall winning atlas of the Big Atlas Weekend–and recipient of the trophy!
- Nocturnal checklists
- Number of checklists with a start time between 20 minutes after sunset and 40 minutes before sunrise submitted during the event in each state/province.
- Breeding evidence
- Total number of breeding evidence records submitted during the event in each state/province.
- New-to-user squares
- Percentage of atlassers in each state/province who submit an atlassing checklist during the event in a square that they have not personally atlassed in before.
Swag
Let’s all get out atlassing between June 24 and June 26 so that Ontario can claim bragging rights for the inaugural Big Atlas Weekend!
