I recently obtained a copy of the Breeding Birds in Ohio (Atlas II) book. Initially, I thought it might be quality, but upon closer study I decided it was a little less. I looked at data from swans through red-bellied woodpecker. There are MANY errors in the data printed related to the 1st Ohio breeding bird atlas (OBBA I) in the "Number of Blocks Detected" graphic for each specie. I found errors for 18 species from swans to red-bl. woodpecker. Half of these species have fairly minor errors. HOWEVER, 8 species in the group have MAJOR errors. Check out the number for n. bobwhite, killdeer, mourning dove, cm. nighthawk, e. whip-poor-will, chimney swift, r.t. hummingbird and red-bellied woodpecker. All they had to do is copy the data from the first OBBA I, but apparently they couldn't do that. I guess a master's degree only gets a person so far.If there are these many errors for swans thru red-bell. woodpecker, how many more errors are there for the rest of the species? For each or most species is given a graphic called "Change map". AGAIN, the errors in these maps is almost endless. Look at the "Breeding Evidence" maps and those on OBBA I and see all the hundreds of errors. If you want a good laugh, look at the pages on ring-necked pheasant. There is a "Density" map. The red area for eastern Crawford County means that r.n. pheasants are fairly common at this area. WRONG ! ! Wild ring-necked pheasants are extremely rare anywhere at Crawford County, Ohio. What does exist is several hunting preserves, with hundreds upon hundreds of pheasants in chicken wire large cages. Not exactly my idea of wild birds. One thing that did not help the OBBA II was that they did not contact the regional coordinators from Atlas I and consequently irritated several of these individuals to the point of not being involved in the second Atlas. Also, a very knowledgeable northern Ohio birder volunteered to be the head coordinator but was turned down, probably because he did not work for the ODOW. Imagine that. The second OBBA does have some worthwhile information, but considering the errors one is wondering how much of the 2nd OBBA data can be trusted. JOHN PATRICK HERMAN ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]