Just 3 months remain, as we continue the final countdown continues before the Atlas finishes. We’re excited to share that we have another challenge this month for you all
March marks the first month of the final Autumn season. The Atlas team want to continue to encourage the Atlas community to be trying to gather observations in as many low effort grid squares as possible before the season ends.
There has been some impressive Summer Atlasing by the community to get more data into more Atlas grid squares and we wish to encourage you all to keep up that amazing effort for just a bit longer. Below shows the current stats as of today for the Autumn season. Can you help us fill in the gaps?
⏹️ With that in mind, the March Atlas challenge is grid-square related, and we have another free pass to give away for one of the Bird Academy courses listed below!
During March one lucky Atlaser will win a free access pass to select one of the following Bird Academy online courses:
1. How to Photograph Birds with Melissa Groo
2. The wonderful world of Owls
3. Understanding Bird Behaviour
To qualify, all you have to do is submit complete checklists to grid squares that have had less than 2 hours Autumn effort so far in the Atlas eBird portal. Each unique grid square on this list that you enter data into gives you one entry into the draw. So if you submit data to 10 grid squares that have had less than 2 hours Autumn effort, your name goes in ten times. Remember your checklists must include counts for every species reported (no X’s!) and should follow the best practices outlined here.
The easiest way is to check out the Atlas Effort Map and find those low effort Autumn grid squares. There are still plenty to explore and help gather bird observations in.
The Atlas Effort Map showing low effort grid squares for Autumn in the South Island. A great place to go and Atlas this March if you can!
The winner will be randomly drawn from everyone who qualifies and announced at the beginning of May.
Many thanks again to the legends at Bird Academy for kindly donating this prize for a lucky Atlaser to win. It is hugely appreciated!
️ For this challenge we continue to recommend using the many tools at your disposal in the Explore tab. The Atlas Effort Map is the best place to find where your efforts are best placed. Our final lockdown webinar can help you review how to plan surveying a square too.
We hope you enjoy targeting as many low effort grid squares as possible this month to finish the Autumn season strongly. Stay safe and have fun out there!
Let us know how you are getting on with the Atlas challenge, and feel free to share your Atlasing adventures on social media, or send us an email. We’re always keen to hear how you’re getting on and help however we can.