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/ ______________________________________________________________________ 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]