Many priority blocks are nearing ‘completion’ but are missing the two required hours of night-time atlasing.
The Atlas Team has developed a set of guidelines that help us determine when a priority block has been adequately surveyed. These guidelines include two hours of nocturnal atlasing.
In order to find a priority block near you in need of a little night work (which is nearly all priority blocks!):
- Go to the Atlas Effort Map
- Toggle the map from “diurnal” to “nocturnal” effort hours (dropdown menu at upper left corner of the map)
- Any priority block that has a yellow or green fill or is transparent needs help
- Zoom in and click on a priority block near you to see how many nocturnal hours there are
- See how many priority blocks you can complete with a couple targeted trips this month
What is nocturnal?
Remember that eBird counts checklists as nocturnal if they begin in the period 20 minutes after sunset to 40 minutes before sunrise. Your entire checklist will be classified as day or night based on the start time.
Keeping separate day and night checklists
A good strategy for keeping separate day and night checklists is to make short (5-10 minute) checklists. Go out at dusk (perhaps to areas where you suspect American Woodcock) and then stay out for another hour after dark to listen for owls. Start a new checklist at each stop along your route so you don’t need to worry about whether it’s technically day or night.
How to assess a block
A block is complete if it meets the block completion guidelines. If you can answer “Yes” to each of the following questions, the block is complete.
- Are there checklists from three different months?
- Are species from multiple habitat types represented?
- Are the time commitments met, particularly the nocturnal hours?
- Is the number of coded species in the right range for that region?
- Are 50% of the species confirmed?
Learn more about how to assess if a block is complete.
If you finish a block
If you think you’ve finished a block, contact your regional coordinator so they can review it.