Fellow birders: Below is a message now making the rounds. Help with this project is needed. North American ornithology already has a lot more data than any comparable discipline, certainly in terms of phenology and distribution, and I am reluctant to jump on any of the many bandwagons enlisting birders to accumulate still more. Enough is enough, and we don't need to know where every robin is during every moment of its life these days. Higher mountains of such data are not going to do much more to save birds. But this one is different. Here are six million heretofore neglected scanned cards with data on N. American bird records, dating back into the 1870s. They record first arrival dates of migrants (I don't think as much of "departure" dates, since who knows?) and other pertinent information. These cards preserve information with a substantial history (130 years) significant size (six million handwritten reports containing multiple observations), and better reliability than other databases. You can help organize these data by volunteering some time to transcribe them at your convenience, using your own computer screen, then mailing them to the BPP. Visit their page at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/index.cfm , and consider signing on to help, even if you can spare only a few minutes every once in a while. I'm not sure yet exactly exactly how it works, but you might be able to choose a species you're especially interested in for the purpose, or a decade, or a state/province. Check it out, anyway. Bill Whan Columbus February 19, 2009 Greetings! It's here!! After much anticipation, we are excited to announce the launch of The North American Bird Phenology Program (BPP) online data entry system! Through this new online program, volunteers from around the world can register on the website and begin transcribing historical bird arrival records into our online database which were originally scanned in the BPP office. What is the BPP? The BPP is working to understand the scale of global climate change and how it is affecting birds across North America. This is the oldest and longest running bird monitoring program in the country, currently housing six million records dating back to the early 1880's. The program, started in 1880 by Wells W. Cooke, collected bird observations by over 3,000 citizen scientists and came to an end in 1970, until we revived the program during the last year. The records document bird migration arrival and departure dates from around North America; an unparalleled and untapped resource, but one in which we need your help to modernize. How can you get involved? The BPP relies solely on volunteers to scan images of the migration cards and transcribe them into our database. We accept participants from all ages and backgrounds. AND you can participate from the comfort of your own home! We need your help! * Online participants must register online at www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/BecomeAParticipant.cfm. There you can learn more about the transcription process and register to become a transcriber. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email which will then take you through a 15 minute training video and back to the website to begin transcription. * Also, If you are in the Baltimore-Washington area and would like to help the crew of volunteers in the BPP office to help with scanning and working with the historic files we welcome you to come and take part in this program. We even have Saturday hours! Individuals, families, and small groups are welcome to help so if you are interested in helping discover how spring and fall arrival times of birds have changed since the 1880's, and I hope you are, please visit us at www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/<http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/> or call (301) 487-5745. Sincerely, Jessica Zelt BARC-East, Bldg 308 10300 Baltimore Avenue Beltsville, MD 20705 Jessica Zelt BPP Program Coordinator USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center [log in to unmask] Phone: (301) 497-5745 Fax: (301) 497-5624 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]