Just a quick reminder to Ohio's birding community: It's still not too late to get involved with the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II this year! Mid-August is the "unofficial" end of the OBBA2 field season each year so there's still plenty of time to head out into adopted or un-surveyed blocks to help put the nesting birds of Ohio on the map. As of today, 67% of species on the OBBA2 checklist are still within safe dates. This stat will rapidly change by July 31st when most simple detections of birds in Ohio can not be included in the Atlas database. The great thing about this time of year is the ease with which many species can be confirmed as breeding. In many cases, all it takes is a quick "spish" to lure a food-carrying adult into view. Another useful tip is the sporadic use of screech-owl recordings. If chickadees or titmice are nearby, they'll add their vocalizations to help lure in more birds...again, many of which could be carrying food. This method for increasing detections of birds works wonders on days when there just doesn't seem to be much going on. This technique has also been very successful in other breeding bird atlases throughout North America (Note: tape playback methods like this should be used sparingly and at appropriate times. If in doubt about whether to use call playback, it would be best to refrain from doing so). Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II. We would love to answer anyone's questions or help give direction towards areas that are in need of survey coverage. Good birding! -- 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/ ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]