2011 was the fifth and final year of the Second Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas. The First Atlas, in the 1970s, used the same grid shown above. (Each block in the grid is 1/6th of a 7.5 minute USGS topographic map or about 3 miles on a side.)

This 2011-2012 winter is data-crunching time. Lots of data = lots of time. By early summer, some of the species reports will be released – all work might be done as early as December 2012.  Final products will include both a complete atlas report (on line) and an abridged report (in print).

In the meantime:

To learn more about the atlas process go to http://www.massaudubon.org/birdatlas/bba2/index.php.

To look at results by species (or block or region), go to
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bba/index.cfm?fa=explore.ResultsSummary&BBA_ID=MA2007.

To look at data from the first four year of the atlas combined with Breeding Bird Survey and Christmas Count data: State of the Birds 2011, go to www.massaudubon.org/stateofthebirds.

To keep atlasing: there will be some follow-up projects (additional data collecting to answer specific questions) – more about that in the spring. At that time, the atlas blog will be re-activated: http://massaudubonblogs.typepad.com/massbirdatlas/.

To continue to combine the joy of birding with the pleasure of knowing you are helping protect birds: offer to collect data for your local land trust, town conservation areas, state conservation areas – any group that is managing land and would benefit from a greater understanding of how their decisions could help protect diverse avian habitats.

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