Greetings all,

As mentioned in the media advisory that was posted to UV Birders earlier 
this week, NH Audubon and NH Fish and Game have created the first-ever 
"State of New Hampshire's Birds" report, which was released with a little 
fanfare yesterday and has gotten good press both in print (at least in 
Concord Monitor, Nashua Telegraph, and Valley News so far), web, and the 
airwaves (NHPR). This was truly a major undertaking that started sometime 
last spring and wrapped up at the end of last year. We delayed it's release 
a little because of the simple need to get all our ducks (pun not intended) 
in a row. In a pure coincidence, its release was ON THE SAME day as that of 
the national "State of the Birds" report for 2010, and as a result I 
actually heard three different "SOTB" clips on NHPR this morning.

For interested parties, the full report and some supplementary material are 
online at http://wildnh.com/birds/. NH Audubon is also working on a printed 
document that will summarize the information in the report for a lay 
audience, with a planned completion date of sometime in June. In between, we 
are in the process of setting up some public presentations of the report, 
which I'll try to remember to post to the list.  The first of these is 
coming right up:

NH Audubon's Massabesic Center in Auburn
Sunday, March 14, 2010
2:00-3:00 p.m.

For people interested in the national report (and the one from last year), 
visit www.stateofthebirds.org.

To close, I'd like to take this opportunity to comment briefly on the data 
behind this report (and the national one for that matter). With the 
exception of data on breeding waterfowl that are usually collected by state 
or federal agencies, ALL the data we have to assess bird populations is 
collected by volunteers. Some of you do an annual Breeding Bird Survey 
route, many more participate in Christmas Bird Counts, and others help with 
things like Project Feederwatch or NH Audubon's Backyard Winter Bird Survey. 
All of these projects collect valuable data to help us understand bird 
population trends, so many thanks to everyone who's helped with this report 
without even knowing it!

For some birds, even these standardized programs don't quite get the data we 
need, and for such species we rely on targetted surveys or anecdotal 
information. Additional thanks thus go out to anyone who's helped monitor 
birds or prey for NH Audubon, counted hawks at a fall hawk watch, listened 
for Whip-poor-wills along darkened country roads, or climbed mountains 
before dawn to search for Bicknell's Thrush. And of course there is NH Bird 
Records and eBird (now one and the same), which provide additional data on 
species that might otherwise slip under the radar (Merlins anyone!?). So as 
is my occasional wont, I once again encourage everyone to help us learn more 
about NH's birds by sumbitting their records to NH eBird. It is a small and 
simple thing, and might just help out the birds we all so clearly care 
about. Of course, you can always go one step farther by helping in some of 
the projects listed above. Stay tuned for additional opportunities as the 
summer approaches.

Enjoy,
Pamela Hunt
Avian Conservation Biologist
NH Audubon
84 Silk Farm Road
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 224-9909 x328
[log in to unmask]

****************************************************************
To post messages, send e-mail to:  [log in to unmask]
Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages.
To contact the list owner:  [log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Web based archives and subscription management are available at:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html
****************************************************************