I know, the first thing you’ll probably be thinking is what the heck is this? Really, it’s a mapping exercise, because that is the major finished product; a book of maps. When it’s complete, British Columbia will have a very good geographic understanding of where each bird species nests in British Columbia complete with a map showing relative abundance. Because of all the bird identification guides you can buy, you may think that the breeding range of each species is well known. Well, yes, in general, they do know. But there are two issues. First, tiny maps of North America with range maps marked on them don’t have good enough resolution for managing a species, if it is of concern. Second, the breeding ranges and abundance keep changing over time, so most of these maps are out of date.
This is not a new concept. It originated in Great Britain in 1976. The state of Vermont was the first area in North America to create one, followed by Ontario. Ontario and the Maritimes have been through this twice. And they have produced maps for each atlas. The data for the first one was collected between 1981 and 1985. The second edition was twenty years later. Both sets of maps are on line for each Atlas. What an astonishing between the two! Some species, like the Bald Eagle have increased in range and abundance. While others, like the Pintail, Killdeer, and the Eastern Towhee have declined. Other provinces are creating them too.
British Columbia is entering its fourth year of atlassing. After this year there will be just one more breeding season to finish the project. And there is still a ton of work to be done.
So why are you needed? Because it is almost all done with volunteers who have some skill in identifying birds both by sight and by sound. There are, however, many places around the province that are just too remote for volunteers to get to. Enter professionals. This year, for a change, there is money from the federal government and the province to pay highly skilled people to go to these remote areas and record how it’s done.
Of course there are protocols, methods and a manual. You can’t have volunteers just heading off willy-nilly.
The manual can be downloaded. But here is a quick overview of the system. The entire province has been divided into 41 Regions each with a coordinator. I’m the coordinator for Alberni/ Bamfield, Region 20. And each region is subdivided into 10x10 km squares. As it would be too difficult to survey all the squares, each coordinator is responsible for completing just a sample of squares in his/her region. To complete a square, atlassers have to spend at least 20 hours looking around throughout as many parts of the square as possible, covering many diferent habitats. There are three categories of breeding evidence: possible, probable and confirmed. Each category has more specific sub categories like, singing males, courtship displays, or adult carrying food for young.
This Region has a goal of 7 squares. Currently 3 are done, and two more are about half done. The square around Port Alberni, and to the east including the Hump and south behind town is done. And a square encompassing the area around Bamfield is done as well. If you are able to record anything out Beaver Creek past Malabar Road out to Oshinow Lake, or in the Sproat Lake area out to Taylor Arm, Nahmint, China Creek, Mactush or anywhere around those places, please give me a call as soon as you can. I’ll be asking you exactly where you saw the bird, what day it was, and what it was doing. Anything you can pass along would help. But remember the area around the city and east has been done, so don’t waste your time there.