Distraction Displays: Mass Breeding Bird Atlas 2

Galluzzo and Lynch on the Radio

Atlas Regional Coordinators First Step In Complete World Domination

 At the end of 2008, writer, historian and natural historian JOHN J. GALLUZZO decided the best way to stay healthy was to walk at least 30 minutes every day along the beaches, fields and forests of his native South Shore. So every day in 2009, despite rain, snow, sunshine, heat, humidity, or relentless onslaughts of biting insects, John hiked some his favorite parks, beaches, salt marshes and sanctuaries from Hull to Plymouth.

He kept an entertaining and informative journal of his wanderings, now published in two volumes: HALF AN HOUR A DAY ON FOOT: AN OBSESSIVE EXPLORATION OF THE NATURE OF THE SOUTH SHORE OF BOSTON and the companion volume HALF AN HOUR A DAY ON FOOT: STEPPING OUT OF BOUNDS.

Tune in to Inquiry tonight for an intimate look at some of the history and natural history of Massachusetts’ South Shore, learn about some of John’s favorite hikes and find out about the only species of nesting bird in the state you have to use your sense of smell to find.

Bonus" so far, John is the only Inquiry guest interviewed WHILE doing breeding bird atlasing!

To listen to this show NOW on-line or down load to your I-Pod, go to:
 
http://www.wicn.org/audio/inquiry-john-galluzzo-half-an-hour-a-day-on-foot
 
Mark Lynch
WICN

Dendroica: Environment Canada's Bird ID Training Website

The Chair Recognizes Our Neighbors to the North

We want to encourage those of you who feel your bird image and song ID could be improved to use the new website that Environment Canada, USGS, Partner's in Flight and a few other partners have created. It is called Dendroica (rolls right off the tongue, if you speak warbler, really) and will honestly help you learn and improve your bird ID skills.

It takes a few minutes, and a pair of return emails, to register, but once you are registered you are off to the races. Did I mention it is free?

You can your set of lists to display a list that is Massachusetts birds, excluding Rare and non-breeding, and the list that you are trained on and are quizzed with. The list that is auto-generated is really close to the actual list of breeding birds in Massachusetts - there are a few add-ons, but they are sort of fun. You can also create a custom list (do I really have to learn all the vireos every year? it appears so!) and Dendroica includes all the species in North America, so it'll be great for traveling or other surveys. 

Below the fold is the email announcing the program, and I will follow up with some specific tweaks that seem to work for me. You should be able to figure it out with a little button pushing and exploration though.

One bit of bad news - the audio requires Flash, which is no problem for Mac or PC desktops/laptops, and some Smaty-pants-phones. For us iPhone-iTouch-iPad folks though, the audio doesn't work (damn you Steve Jobs!). For us iPhone folk there is the iBird app and the Sibley app - but that is for another post.

(Kudos to me for getting through the whole post without a single "aye" joke, a curling joke, or a picture of a Mountie.)