Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to bring your attention to the website of the North
American Ornithological Atlas Committee:

http://www.bsc-eoc.org/norac/index.jsp?targetpg=index&lang=EN

Since many of you have been contributing countless hours this spring
and summer to the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II, you may be wondering
about the impact of your citizen science contributions to such an
endeavor.  If you're curious about what BBAs accomplish for bird
conservation, etc. or if you're wondering about the historical context
of the "breeding bird atlas", I encourage you to visit this website.
In particular, there is an interesting article reproduced on this site
that was originally published in "Birding" back in 1997 ("Breeding
Bird Atlases: a Chance for Birders to Make an Important
Contribution"...http://www.bsc-eoc.org/norac/index.jsp?targetpg=atlasbirders&lang=EN).

I encourage you all to read through this article to gain a nice
overview of what we're doing here in Ohio...for the second time!  More
details about Ohio's breeding bird atlas can be found at
www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/.  And all of the first Atlas species accounts
(Peterjohn & Rice) are available here as PDF downloads!!!

I would like to express my gratitude to the Ohio birding listserve
community for bearing with me this season as I tried to keep everyone
aware of the current progress of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II.
These past three months were exciting times for the Atlas and being
the mid-point of the project, many critical steps-forward were made.
I'm proud to be taking part in such a project and it is my hope that
each of you feel the same way.

Adding to that, we are always in need of new contributors to the
Atlas.  If you've been considering participation in this project but
still are unclear about what is involved, please contact me.  It would
be my privilege to talk with you about the many ways in which you can
participate (see contact information below).  There's still plenty of
time to help out with the Atlas.  And even if you will be new to OBBA2
in 2009, you could still contribute past birding observations from
2006-2008.  Get in touch and we can figure out how to treat these
useful data.

Good luck to everyone with your Fall birding endeavors!

Sincerely,

Aaron Boone
Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II
School of Environment & Natural Resources
The Ohio State University
210 Kottman Hall
2021 Coffey Road
Columbus, OH 43210-1085
614.247.6458 (office)
www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/

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