Field Trips
2020-2021 Field Trip Calendar
The public is invited to any of the scheduled field trips as guests of the Bartramian Audubon Society. Please contact Martin Carlin Field Trip Chairman (Carlin.martin@ymail.com) 724-355-7492 for additional information and/or attendance registration.
Saturday, May 9th 2020
You can participate… by going birding! With appropriate precautions (such as birding alone or only with someone with whom you share living quarters, maintaining social distancing in the field, etc.), you can look and listen for birds, record your results, and add them to the overall tally.
The procedure is simple. Visit an area—or keep watch on your backyard feeders—record the number of each species of bird you identify, and submit your data. We can provide you with a tally sheet, you can make your own list, or if you are already an eBird user, you can record your data on that program (see below).
Dr. Gene Wilhelm of BAS will coordinate the effort. Contact him at
genewilhelm@aol.com by
Wednesday, May 6 to let him know that you plan to participate and where you plan to bird.. Because we need good coverage of all areas (if four separate people report from the Wildfowl Observation Area in Moraine State Park and no one visits Sunken Garden Trail in the park, important information will be missed while other data will be duplicated), Dr. Wilhelm will see what your plans are and provide guidance for how to proceed.
Information from as many different areas as possible is needed, but those staying home and watching their feeders are just as vital to this effort. If you have never collected feeder data before, here are some tips: You can check your feeders (and yard) periodically throughout the day or select two or three blocks of time (10-15 minutes) to observe during the day. Record the number of birds of each species that you see at once, and revise your count as you observe other ones. However, only increase your count if you reasonably believe that you are recording different birds. For example, if you see three robins in your yard at 8:00 am, three robins at noon, and two robins at 5:00, the number you should report is three, not eight—it’s likely that you’re seeing the same birds over and over. However, if you count two male and one female cardinals, then later see one male and three females, you should report five. Also, estimates are OK—if there is a large flock of goldfinches at your feeders, count as many as you can and base an estimate on that. Perhaps you counted 10 and think “that was only about a third of the flock.” You can report 30.
If you use eBird, you can provide your list for each area you cover. Here is one way: on your eBird page, choose “my eBird.” Your summary data will appear along with a number of options. Select “Manage my Checklists.” The resulting page will display all of your eBird checklists. Pick the one you want to include in the BAS Big Day and click on “View or Edit.” Your checklist will appear. In the upper right of the page is a box “Checklist Tools.” Click on the downward arrow in that box and scroll down to “email yourself.” Click on that and your list is automatically emailed to the address you use for eBird. Open your mail and find the message from ebird-checklist@cornell.edu. Forward this message to
genewilhelm@aol.com. If you created checklists for more than one area on May 9, just repeat the process for each.
SATURDAY, Oct 26th 2019
Meet at the parking lot near the steel bridge on Miller Road
