Maine Bird Atlas - The Final Presentation

So to more officially kick this off as we're a few minutes after seven, I just want to say welcome everyone again. Um this is the final presentation as we're calling it for the main bird atlas. I'm sure there will be uh much more to come as we're going to talk about throughout this. Um this is in one way this is only like the beginning of the Atlas. It's kind of the um there's as you'll you'll hopefully see so much more to come from this. The quick little bulleted list here is just to kind of give you guys a a heads up of what we want to cover. Um uh each panelist on tonight kind of has a different uh section that they're going to cover and we thought it would probably work best to let each person um introduce themselves as we go. I bet um a lot of you probably know us already, but we'll do uh quick intros to kind of kick off each section. So, with that, I will stop screen sharing and let Glenn get us started. Okay, thanks Doug. Let me get things shared. Okay, so I'm Glenn Middlehouser. I'm an ecologist with Maine Natural History Observatory and was the coordinator for the main bird atlas. Uh 10 long years of of working with wonderful staff, wonderful volunteers. Um loved working on this project. So my background with birds was has been working with winter water birds off the coast of Maine. And I I did the math the other day and I've been at it for 40 years looking at winter bird populations and I've noticed that a lot of birds have changed over those 40 years. Some have increased, some have decreased, some have shifted their range, winter range. Um, and others have remained remarkably stable from year to year. And I suspect that many of you on this call um may have similar experiences with places that youird that maybe the uh some birds that you notice have shifted in distribution or population over the time that you're watching. And there was a study published, it's a little while ago now, that looking at changes in bird groups across all of North America and grassland birds, shore birds, and boreal forest birds have declined rather significantly. But really, when you talk about Maine, the way to figure out what's changed in terms of bird populations rather than just my anecdotal information, which is hard for somebody else to re to repeat, um, unless I archive the data and the methods, atlases are designed to monitor change in bird populations and many adjacent states and provinces have completed did multiple breeding bird atlases. Um, and and Maine was one of the first states to do to start a breeding bird atlas 1978 to 1983. Um, and that was a huge effort. You know, it was done by a few hundred folks, few hundred volunteers who thought it was worthwhile to put the time and the effort into putting down some baseline data in a way that could be repeated in the future. Um, you know, giving the best information they could on the distribution of mains breeding birds. Um, and with each passing year, this this data in this first main breeding bird atlas becomes more and more valuable because changes are happening. And it took us many decades to start Maine's second breeding bird atlas, but we finally did 2018 to 2022. Um, and I'm proud that we've included a wintering bird atlas component to it as well. Again, it's it's setting atlases are setting baseline data sets against which change can be measured in the future. And there's a lot to learn about Maine's uh wintering birds as well. So, the concept of atlasing, bird atlasing is rather simple. You send an observer out into the field uh at a location. They record what birds they saw and they report it using the protocols for an atlas which in turn puts a dot on the map for that species at that location. And with the atlases, the goal is to get thousands of volunteers. Not all just birding in the the places that people like to bird, but spread out over the state, including the areas that are difficult to get to. Um, you know, many hours down a windy dirt road, uh, places that aren't very exciting to bird. But collectively, you put all those observations together and you get distribution maps of species. And so that's what we did with Maine's second bird atlas is we now have distribution maps for 315 species, which is breeding distribution maps as well as wintering distribution maps. And we had some challenging areas. The main north woods is a challenging area to get into. A lot of dirt roads up in there. And the coastal islands. Maine has thousands of small coastal islands with breeding birds, wintering birds on them. Challenging to get folks out to some of those places, but it's the same challenges that they had in Maine's first breeding bird atlas as well. So at the very start we knew that we needed a lot of volunteers, thousands of volunteers. Um so we focused on outreach, uh focused on convincing folks to bird with a purpose of setting down an archive of current conditions of Maine's birds. um writing protocols, uh teaching people how to enter their data into the atlas using our protocols. Um and you guys stepped up. We had 6,500 lovely volunteers who contributed 2.6 million bird records. That is uh a huge amount of effort that went into all of that. huge amount of, you know, effort on all parts covering 90% of the state um with some at least some bird records. And if you've been in some of these remote areas of Maine, that's that's an impressive number. It's Maine has a lot of hard to get to areas. Um many thousands of thousands of square miles of survey blocks. and it's it's the biggest natural history assessment ever undertaken in Maine. Um, and I've I've had folks ask why it's taken us so long, you know, the atlas finished in 2022. Why is it taking so long to put the data together in this Atlas book? And which I I find slightly amusing. You know, publishing publishing large complex books uh takes a long time anyway. And the main bird atlas is the most complex book I've ever worked on. So when you you think about it, you know, starting at the data prep phase, we need to make sure, you know, yeah, we've got millions of bird records, but we want to make sure we have everything before we start the process of proofing data. We won't don't want data to keep trickling in over the year, a year later. And the dating data proofing phase just took a long time to do that, right? you think about proofing, you know, catching errors in 2.6 million bird records. That's going to take some time and you want to do that well before you start generating maps. You start running population models. Um that's, you know, it's important to get the the data finalized before you get to that point. Um and then you enter the publication phase where you know 315 species, 75 contributing uh authors with a lot of editing, a lot of proofing, back to editing, back to rewriting before we can hand it off to the folks at University Main Press to help us get this to publication. So, it's this is this is the road map that we published partway through the atlas on what it would take to to produce the the book, the main bird atlas book, and we're on schedule for what we thought it would take, the 2026 publication. Um, and it sets down a marker for where we're at with breeding and wintering birds, just like they did in the first atlas. And you know it's a huge amount of effort. There's a lot of surprises in this data as well. Things that we weren't we didn't know. It's there's some things that were obvious. You know, large shifts in bird populations. You know, a lot of us notice that, but there's a lot of surprises in here. And there's going to be 20 years of research, you know, now that this Atlas book is will be coming out soon to, you know, dig into some of these questions that the atlas raised. Um, so it's a a very exciting time. Um, proud to have been working with all of you on producing this this bird atlas. And like all the projects that I tend to work on at Maine Natural History Observatory, I see that we're working for the next generation of main burers and biologists. You know, I love working on projects that um has a protocol that's designed to be repeated in the future. It's a monitoring thing and you archive the data in a way that it can be found decades later and repeated. you know, it doesn't help if the data gets lost. Um, and so that's what we've set out, that's what the the authors of the Maine's first breeding bird atlas did, and they were successful, highly successful. That's a huge effort with that. Um, and I think we've done the same with the second uh main bird atlas. So, with that, I'm going to pass it along to Doug to uh talk about his experience with uh the Atlas. Let me seamlessly change the spotlight um and switch to my slides. Um for uh Doug, you're muted. >> Seamlessly switched to my slides and uh [laughter] thank you Evan. Um, watch this. All right. Sorry about that, folks. Uh, folks that don't know me, I'm Doug Hitchcock's, the staff naturalist for Maine Audabon. Um, I was involved with the main bird atlas as the outreach coordinator. Um, so doing a lot of those trainings. It was uh fun to see that uh that picture that Glenn showed of me doing um uh some tableabling. uh fun to think of all the places that we were around the state uh trying to connect with you know not only burers as I'll talk about more um really anyone spending time outdoors in Maine who could collect data for us um a thing we we often talk about is how this is um you know it it often takes you know people reporting kind of um uh what they know it doesn't matter what they don't Now, um here's just a fun picture of a few of us during a a block busting trip uh trying to check maps against uh the Delor atlas. Fun to really um I'd love to, you know, my if I could go back in time, we should have bought stock in uh Delarm because the number of atlases that had to be purchased for um for this project uh they really came in handy. So, I think it, you know, really can't be understated that a project of this scope, um, Glenn showed you some of those numbers, but this, a project like this really can only be completed, um, because of the the volunteers, the number of people involved. The state of Maine is absolutely huge. And I think it's also worth kind of doubling down on the idea that, you know, we had these volunteers who were not only going to, you know, remote places of the state, but oftent times just getting into even some like funky little parks in, you know, even in Portland. Um it was always funny to look at the the different block boundaries, the areas that we wanted people surveying and realizing um you know it takes a little bit of effort to get into uh some of these places. You've uh you've seen and you'll see even more of these numbers. Um yes, and I see Craig mentioning and trespassing with care. Uh we we certainly learned um Maine has some um uh interesting some um very open rules. Always good to get permission to go into any place and and I'll I'll give our volunteers tons of credit. um uh as I was starting to say like the many roles that that people had was not only as as Atlasers going out and doing it, but we had a number of regional coordinators um helping out that like it's just as important to give the volunteers the tools that they need um as it is to, you know, be a volunteer themselves. We had people, you know, reviewing the um the final product, the book. Uh I know you know folks that um read that book cover to cover for us. Um there was a lot of time um spent on this that I'm sure uh uh more than we'll ever really be able to appreciate. Some of these numbers are are ones that um Glenn was alluding to, but I think you know the one I really want to double down on between the the first atlas uh that one back that was finished in 1983 having you know around 200 volunteers uh and I'd love to know how that effort kind of broke down. Um you know it can be said you know same for us it it takes um many people contributing effort to to add up to you know those hundreds of thousands of hours uh that that got this um project done. But it's really in I think incredible the way that we've been able to harness um so many people and it's so interesting just how we we also had great timing with um the number of people who have gotten into birding. uh more recently as a hobby. Here's one of my favorite um maps to look at. Um this is at at the end of our first two years. So we spent five years having volunteers go around the state. Um this is looking at the the cumulative effort within each of the blocks. And of course it's um need to acknowledge that like it takes time. It's not just going to be like in a single year often that a block will get completed. Um, but to think that after two years, this is what we were looking at. And we really kind of doubled down on getting volunteers to go out. So, I'll press play, let this little animation run, and to see that within those last three years, we could get that full systematic statewide coverage. um really impossible to get to all the blocks but um especially as Glenn mentioned like that area of the northwestern corner of the state comes with all sorts of challenges. I think we also really need to acknowledge a massive challenge that came up right in the middle of the main bird atlas which was COVID 19. I was looking through our old newsletters and here we have this article where we were practically encouraging people to not go outside or at least giving them more appropriate um guidance on uh where to go. Um you know, we literally wrote like if you get to someplace and there's other cars in the parking lot, like maybe go someplace else. It's kind of a crazy time um to be trying to do a a bird atlas touring. The nice thing that came out of that, I kind of alluded to this right at the start of this meeting, is that we learned some new skills ourselves. Certainly hosting these uh virtual uh Q&As that we would do um especially throughout the the winter season. We held a number um during the breeding season as well. But the way that that allowed us to uh reach actually a lot more people, it was kind of funny um to have spent, you know, those first two years driving all over the state doing, you know, presentations to whatever garden club or or um anyone who would who would have us. Um but it was that ability to host these trainings um and these sessions on Zoom where people um from anywhere in the state really you know essentially from their homes could attend all the time um I think was actually one of the huge um keys to our success with the atlas and then as as again as we've been saying the the difficulties of getting around the state especially when you don't know what is ahead of you. Um, I I left this in uh in the bottom right corner. You can see it's just after 1000 p.m. I was driving around with another volunteer, uh, Michael. We were joining up with some others to do a a blockbusting trip. Um, it took us eight hours of driving to get into uh these blocks that we were trying to tackle. Um, up in the northwest corner. Um, absolutely a a super fun time, but I think acknowledging just how hard a lot of this this atlas was, especially the winter portion. We talk a lot about the uh the breeding portion of the atlas, but having these these winter distribution maps is also an amazing feat and worth acknowledging. I know I recall um at one of our Q&As's Woody Gillies sharing um that he had spent it was over an hour in some winter block that was really kind of a a monoculture of habitats as I recall and he didn't detect a single bird um which is you know that's valuable data as well but it takes a ton of effort. Um, last couple things I want to mention, um, from the volunteer side. One, uh, really fun, um, challenge, as as we, uh, started calling it, that came out of this was, uh, a multi-state atlasing challenge. So, Maine wasn't the only state to be doing a breeding bird atlas. Um, over these years, we we were overlapping with a few others. in 2021. Um, uh, oh my gosh, what's her name? Uh, Julie, um, blanking on her last name. Julie from, um, New York, uh, Breeding Bird Atlas reached out and and, um, we joined this effort with, uh, Maryland, DC, North Carolina, um, New York, trying to come up with more, you know, fun, competitive ways for for volunteers to go out. The, um, this would be followed up. We did it again in 2022. That was the last year for us, but um it lived on after that. In 2022, we actually had some Canadian atlases. Ontario, Newf Finland uh got involved. What I want to quickly get across is that Maine, despite, if you can see the uh the numbers here, despite having fewer atlasers, fewer volunteers, um some of the challenges that that we looked at were trying to get the the number of confirmations in blocks, the um amount of effort. Julie Hart, thank you so much. um uh in the chat. Um uh Maine ended up winning both years that we uh competed in the Big Atlas weekend because of the efficiency of our volunteers. I like to say our volunteers were trained so well to be coding almost every species that they saw that the the different criteria we used for for picking um the winning team here. Again, despite having the fewest amount of people, we had the most efficient Atlasers. So, we brought home the big Atlas Weekend Championship trophy two years in a row. Um, and boy, I'm proud of the book, but uh having that trophy for two years was um was a really nice part of [laughter] uh The Atlas, too. The last point I want to make um before I I hand this off is that I've me I keep saying burers a number of burers who have been involved um but it went so far beyond that and and I will double down so much to say that uh good burers some of the best most active burers in the state were some of the worst atlasers. Uh burers in general like to go to the same places all the time and Aliceing really required people to go off the beaten path or go to places that didn't have necessarily public access like finding the access checking I threw in this picture of this wonderful um sewage pond back behind a farm you know it brought you to some less than uh beautiful places but trying to find the birds um that are all over the entire state was really a key thing I think some of the people who, you know, were casually interested in birds at best, um, but that came to our sessions that that were well-trained, uh, really were some of the MVPs that got this project done. So, without giving anything away, I know Logan's going to talk about some more projects coming up. I want to say whether it's things like the riparian swallow survey, if it's the main flower survey, you might think like, h, I'm not I don't know what a flowerly even is. Um, just because you're not a good flower flyer doesn't mean you won't be a good flowerfly atlaser. Um, if you get my drift here. So, there are going to be more projects coming up in the state. Again, Logan will will um talk more about some of these. Uh but I want to really encourage people that like don't you know that is one of the kind of key parts of citizen science projects like this is um people from all different skill levels can can get involved and um again it's it's what makes a project like this successful. Uh with that I'm going to hand it over to Evan to talk about data. >> Not just data anymore. Are we going to talk about results? Yeah, >> which is fun. >> Yeah. All right. Hopefully this this works. All right, everyone. Um, I'm Evan Adams. I'm a quantitative ecologist at the Biodiversity Research Institute. We're based here in Maine and we do a lot of different kinds of bird related work and some other some other species as well. As a quantitative ecologist, part of my job is like thinking about how we design studies and how we conduct science and how we like learn things, but also how we take data and turn them into science products that we can use. And and at the atlas is really just like, you know, an absolute treasure trove of data and really um a delightful thing to turn into a bunch of cool science that people can use and be interested in and learn from. So, this has honestly been one one of the pleasures of my career to work on this project. Um, it's been it's been a delight. Um, so one of the things that we get to do is we as as atlasers get to go out and see cool things like this, like a gray cat bird holding a holding a stick maybe looking like it wants to start building a nest. And we have to find ways of turning information like this or finding a robin on a nest or finding a a tree swallow maybe at a a very uh predefined location at a nest box. And we have to find a way to turn that into actual results, actual information that people can can find useful. So, of the 2.6 million records that has been mentioned already, we have to turn that into estimates of where animals are breeding and and a variety of other things that we can use to learn something about what's happening with with mains of birds. And so, there's a bunch of different ways we do this. I'm not going to get into any any great detail here, but the atlas is really a a a broad category of things. There is the volunteer atlas effort that we've been talking about um where we have we've surveyed all across the state. We we used this grid system to cover the entire state. And each one of those grid cells had an atlas block in it that we that we completed that we could we spent enough time there and and and identified enough bird behaviors that we said that we've we've done you know what we've done a sufficient amount of effort in that in the as block to say we know something about it and that's been very exciting. Um but we also have a bunch of other things happening at the same time. We have targeted surveys. So, in this case, this is the the road network of Maine. And we use those roads to to travel around and and do uh over 10,000 point counts in the state to figure out what not just where animals are and where they might be breeding, but give us a sense of how many there are and how we can use that in a variety of ways. Um, which is which is all very exciting. And so, the Alice is is not just one thing. It's it's a bunch of different things that we can combine together into a much larger effort to understand mates birds, which makes it all the more exciting. And just to give you a sense of what this looks like, I'm going to go through a couple different species about so we can kind of show how this kind of works for species we know a little bit about, a little more about, and then a lot about and and kind of describe how we um how we sort of take information from the atlas and turn it into something that you'll see in the book. And so the start starting off with knowing a little bit about um is the northern harrier. And it's not like we know nothing. We we see them you know we have we have a decent number of northern harrier records but um we have what we kind of start off with here as a breeding evidence map and also a breeding phenology plot there on the right. So the breeding evidence map as you go from gray to green you you have increasing evidence that that aer uh was was breeding in that atlas block. And so you can kind of see that we have a few confirmed hairriers in that dark green and then we have a large number of yellows which is which is a possible which means it was probably found in the right habitat. It was it was a spot that looked good but we didn't find any more information out. And this is sometimes where the information we have on a bird for in in the breeding season can end. Um we can we can say well this is you know we have a bunch of information and this is really good. But we always the nice thing about the bird atlas is is we're not this isn't our first one and so we always get the comparison back to to the initial atlas right and so we can always look at breeding change and this happens uh not at the block scale you actually have to aggregate up to the to what we call the USGS quad or too scale so it's six blocks uh because the first atlas was done at that scale and we can look to see like well this is where we founders that we didn't find back in uh 1978 to 1982 and then there's areas where we now find them and there's areas where we don't find them anymore and there's areas where we uh where we still find them and you can kind of see uh you know with the the red down arrows being decreases and the blue up arrows being increases that harriers are pretty uh mixed bag um there's there's a there's a um quite a complex you know process happening across the range here um and which is which is extremely helpful this this information is information you really can't get any other way through other than through doing a bird atlas and this is the kind of stuff that I really helps us as like conservation practitioners understand like what's going on with our species and what we can do about it which I'll which I'll return to later. But there's there's other things we can learn too and it sort of depends on kind of what species we are. And so the next species we'll talk about here is the wood duck. So the wooduck breeding evidence map as you can kind of tell just from looking at it. Um a lot more detections of of of our of our little friends. Um a lot more confirmations and and more coverage generally across the states. You also can see that we have now kind of three different chunks of the the nesting phenology map which kind of shows you when the early phase the nest initiation phase the middle phase when they have young and nests and the later stages when they have fledging young overlapping in some cases uh in this in this species uh as as as we're sort of covering a really wide range across the state and you can see that you know we're finding uh we're finding them still but mostly in the southern portion of the state. um we can go look we can like we did with Harriers we can go look back and look at change in the in in the breeding um in our Atlas results with the Atlas one and we find a little bit less kind of a dynamic process here we we we see that like you know where we're finding wood ducks we generally found them in the previous atlas but there's there's some definitely some change particularly around the fringes but one of the things that we did with wood ducks is we actually have a bit of additional information we were able to build uh a breeding occupancy map so occupancy just means it's a place It's it's a it's a it's a an analytical process we can we can conduct and sort of say like what's the chances of finding an animal here in this area in the breeding season. So it's just what's your what's you know you walk out to a given spot what's your probability of running into a wood duck during the breeding season. And so I want to talk a little bit about how we get that which is which is kind of fun because with wood ducks we don't just uh get this from the atlas data. with wood ducks. We actually have um we have marsh bird surveys that we've been that we were conducting for throughout the Atlas I'm sorry uh sorry marsh surveys um which we detected marsh birds and many other species and wood ducks were actually one of the many other species that we found within these marshes very consistently. So pairing that with the the data we had from the atlases, we were able to pull together a better understanding of where wood ducks are in the state and build a more complicated model that can help us like make hopefully better informed decisions about like where wood ducks are and what's going on with wood ducks in the state, which is which is quite exciting. Um, and so this is this is kind of the the additional fun things we get when we have a little bit more information from these additional surveys. And I'll note that these are these are um these are volunteer run surveys as well. So, we have volunteers going out and doing all these as as as well as some some Atlas staff, too. I I got to do a couple and they are always fun. Um, so that's so that's kind of an exciting twist we can add. Um, kind of our la our last example here will be northern cardinal. Um, interesting species. They they've kind of uh, as you'll see, have changed a lot over the past 40 years in the state of Maine. You can see they're still primarily localized in the southeastern portion of the state or south central portion of the state, mostly along the coast, but sort of spreading into new areas. Um, we have a lot of data for northern cardinals uh where they're found uh they nest near uh human residences often and so they get they get picked up very frequently um which is great and um so you can see we we have this like now kind of excellent description of where we're confirming cardinal nesting down um down in these areas of the state. We can compare back to Atlas one and we can see um there's a lot of up arrows because there's a lot more cardinals in the state now than there than there used to be. Um you can see a few there's a few blocks where we that it was detected in Alice one but not two. Uh which which can happen even even when you have a big increase for a species like this. Um so but this is one of our this is one of our big changers. They they they they come up into the main in into main forest over the past few years. And they have something a little bit different than the other ones. They actually have a density model. And so what we were able to do because we have more data from cardinals than we have for some other species. we are able to actually estimate how what their breeding density is all throughout the state. Um, and this sounds like it might it sounds similar maybe to what we have from the breeding evidence, but it's actually like a real big step up because instead of just being able to say we know that there's a bird there, we've confirmed that they're breeding. We can now say things like, "Yeah, we think there's actually about three cardinals uh in this neighborhood or six cardinals in that neighborhood or in the or in this a group of neighborhoods." We're not usually predicting quite that small. Um, but it's very exciting that we can that we can now estimate these things because this gives us now data that we can use to track [clears throat] not only the range shifts over time, but we can track their population sizes over time. Uh, and that's something that we can use to start um building on the information that we already have about species rain shifts and declines and some of the things that that Glenn was alluding to earlier when he was talking about that um that study from the folks [clears throat] over at Cornell and and some other places. Um, so how do we get this information? So this is where we're actually pulling in information from those roadside surveys that I mentioned earlier. So, so we need those roadside surveys. They're the data are collected in a way that allows us to sort of get at like what the real density of cardinals are. Essentially, like when we go out looking for birds, we don't always find all the birds in the area because birds are sometimes sneaky, sometimes quiet, sometimes uh not there. Sometimes they're they're flying around in another location. And that doesn't mean they don't they're not present at that spot sometimes, but uh but if we if we collect data in a certain way, we can actually try to account for all of that and give us like our best estimate of like what's going on density wise in those locations. And so we have intrepid volunteers like Brian here who are out there documenting the exact number of animals so that you can um so that you can take that information and use it to build some density models afterwards, which is all very exciting. Additionally, you can actually use this information. we can kind of take those these density models and roll them up and give us an assessment of like how many total number of animals there are in the state of Maine for a given species. And so when we have a model that um that that fits well and we that we're using in the atlas, we actually can have estimates of the total breeding bird population for some of these species. So and we have that for for many um usually the more common ones like cardinals um but but we have really wonderful information for them and for some other species too. Um we we actually even even some of the rare species we actually sometimes have other surveys that can give us input on that. So, we actually have estimates of breeding bird population size. We have estimates of habitat preferences for for all these species. And we have a lot of uh a lot of appendices to the atlas that people can can comb through to find all the fun things that we that we discovered along the way while we were doing this. Thus far, I've been sort of talking about just individual species, but one of the cool things about the Alice is we can start rolling things up and start looking at communities and how communities are changing. And so if we look at our three example species here and look at their change maps, um what we can do is we can actually take those change maps. We can kind of stack them up and think about how we want and we can quantify the difference between atlas one and atlas 2 and we can start to describe like essentially a range of responses over the last 40 years that we've seen from our from our main birds. On the X you see longitude change, on the Y you see latitude change. And so essentially this like will show you how like the the change in the distribution of this bird as for from atlas one to atlas 2 um for these four three species. You can kind of see where they they belong. Cardinals are kind of one of our big groups that come into the state. So they're in the top right corner. They moved they moved a big uh northeast from where they started. Uh wood ducks have been relatively stable but they're uh but they have shifted a little bit in terms of longitude. And harriers are also relatively stable, but they are are sort of shifting to the um to the south and to the west, mostly to the west, but a little bit to the south. And so we're seeing all these sort of changes in species that are related to a lot of different things. Maybe changing how habitat preferences, maybe changes in population size, um maybe changes in all kinds of things. And we can start using this to like build an understanding of what actually is changing in the state of Maine. Um and I think this is all very exciting. This is the kind of stuff that we have honestly just gotten started with at the atlas. But the great thing is is we don't have to be what's in the what's in the you know we could have made the book longer but we stopped. Um but there's so much more we can even do than what we did we did in the atlas itself. So this so we have stuff like this in here that to kind of show you what we think is that we think is happening in the state. But there's really really so much more that we can do with all these data. It's quite exciting. I forgot I had that one in there. One of the exciting things that we do do with all these data is that they were able to inform state wildlife action plans. And so if people aren't aware of state wildlife action plans, they are kind of the tool we use to sort of define like what our conservation priorities are for Maine or any other state in the US. And these things are really important. They're really important. They guide like a state agency like Maine's FNW to to do the things that you're going to do over the next few years. And and we are very proud to say through a lot of hard work from Adrian and and and the rest of the Alice staff that like we're able to incorporate a lot of this information into the next round of of the main um state wildlife action plan. And you know, it's it's exciting to be able to to to start using that in that to to help foster conservation successes and inform conservation processes. And so that's been very exciting for us. Um, but it's definitely not the only thing. And I think I think the one thing that I'd like to leave people with is like we have a lot of information in here. I think it's a lot. It's going to be very exciting for people to to find out like what we learned and what and and like kind of what we discovered about species over the over the past um over the second main birdalis. But there's really so much there and I think there's so much more to learn and I think you get to ask a question which is what do you want to do with this? There's so much to do and uh we're really excited to see what us hopefully and others get to do with it as now that we're getting it out there. So um [clears throat] yeah. So that's it. That's it for me. I hopefully gave you a little taste of like what the fun things we have in the Atlas are. And now I think I pop over to Logan who gets to talk about other fun things we're doing now that the Atlas uh now that the book is kind of finished. >> Yeah, perfect. Perfect segue. Uh let me get my presentation up here. Okay. Hopefully you guys can see that. Maybe one of my fellow panelists can confirm. >> Looks good. >> Cool. Okay. Yeah. Um, so I'm uh I'm Logan Parker. I was uh a lead technician. I was a lead technician with the Atlas. Worked on point counts um during the project. and uh I'm an ecologist with the main natural history observatory and I'm going to talk to you about sort of one of the the projects that has been spurred by uh the atlas. So, sort of diving into some of the next steps. Um, as I mentioned, um, uh, I'm with the main natural history observatory and, uh, a lot of folks might know me from, uh, the work that I've done, uh, with Whipperwill and Common Nighthawk. Uh, we had the main Nightshar monitoring project that we ran, um, sort of in in connection with the Atlas. And uh you know, spoiler spoiler alert, we've got another project that uh we've we've launched. Um yeah, so uh as as Evan said, uh there's, you know, a number of of uh species that have had these really significant changes. There's these things that really jump out at you, especially when you look at the change maps within the atlas. uh some of them fitting into patterns that we would expect, you know, uh large landscape shifts uh leading to groups of birds changing and then some more surprising uh uh changes uh with within certain species and [snorts] sometimes the scale of the change is sort of uh what what strikes you. Um I was going to put in a plug for uh Evse what's called inset stories within the Atlas. So when you when you get your your hands on the Atlas, uh check out Evans um movers and shakers inset story. It's really very very interesting. So yeah, these changes uh prompt opportunities to uh start to you know take the next step and examine uh what might be underlying some of these changes or what other dynamics are are important. [snorts] So, uh, a number of aerial insecttovores have experience experienced significant changes, uh, as evidenced by, uh, the changes we've seen between Atlas one and two. And as someone that's been really interested in this group, uh, these sort of stuck out to me and and a few of our our partners, um, Bank Swallow in particular jumped out as a really notable uh, decline. um they were the uh they experienced the third uh largest range retraction among among birds in the state. And this is a species that was you know at a time uh quite widespread and you see the uh extent of the the the uh changes between atlas one and two. Uh it's not it's not just limited to one particular area. You see it uh throughout the state and along the coastline. Um, so that really jumped out and uh seemed like a a a good place to start digging in a little deeper with this particular species. And it caught more than just our attention. Uh, you know, I I worked closely with uh the main department of inland fisheries and wildlife. uh Kenzie Rotor at Inland Fishers and Wildlife and uh an organization Swallow Conservation. Um Mars Silver over there helped us uh sort of chart chart a path forward and we started working together on a larger uh effort focused on aerial insecttovores as a group with many different surveys and and research efforts under this umbrella. So uh we've got the main riparian swallow survey that I alluded to. Uh we've worked on expanding tree swallow nest box monitoring uh new projects focused on cliff swallow and uh the newly launched main nest quest project. So these are all projects looking at aerial insecttovores as a group because they jumped out at us uh following the atlas as as a high priority for focusing some additional efforts. So looking at bank swallow uh this is sort of the landscape that we've come to associate the species with um you know looking at the data from Atlas one there's good good reason to uh lots of folks wrote in uh comments uh when they submitted their confirmations and a lot of the confirmations of bank swallow came from man-made uh um you know nesting areas like this and sand pits and gravel extraction sites. So they certainly do uh support these species. Um and uh you know it it is sign you know it's an important area for us to focus some of our effort. Um however these areas are often privately owned. There's access issues. Some of these sites are abandoned and uh degrade over time. And so while we're certainly interested in um you know finding more data from these areas, we also know that bank swallows are associated with other landscapes. You know uh historically, you know, these bank swallows, the bank that they're referring to are river banks or stream banks. Um and we've kind of shifted our focus towards uh just these these gravel pits when there's there's sort of a larger uh area for us to study. Um I had been out during the atlas and had documented uh bank swallows breeding along the Anderson and so it you know and I had seen others had reported uh riparian uh uh swallow activity as well. And so, uh, it seemed like a great place for us to to, uh, launch an effort and sort of get our heads around, uh, if these birds were in these environments in numbers. And that's sort of where the main riparian swallow survey um, came from. So, we we worked as a group and uh, developed a pilot effort this year. Um we had conducted a number of specialized surveys throughout the atlas. So I I worked on uh alpine surveys, wetland surveys, nocturnal surveys. Um but we hadn't done um assessment of the waterways themselves, you know, traveling on on our rivers. Um, and the the uh recently updated state wildlife action plan that uh Evan alluded to had specifically uh called out the need for uh monitoring efforts targeting banks swallows specifically as a as a high priority. Um, fortunately for us some there are other projects that have done this type of work although there there aren't many. Um, so we looked to examples uh on the west coast in California and also in the Maritimes as a uh you know a a um sort of uh foundation from which to work in our own state. And so we established a survey protocol that could be done um from canoes, from kayaks um to go out there and start collecting data on on main rivers. And simultaneously we started uh collecting data of other swallows that we were finding along the way because of course we're passing through areas where there's other riparian swallows. Um that effort uh is now expanding to a statewide community science effort uh in in the year ahead. So um excited to tell you more about that. We had a a number of goals for this project. Uh I won't read them all to you now, but uh essentially we were looking at assessing the distribution of of bank swallows in these environments in these riparian environments uh to set up a an annual assessment, identify threats and uh provide insights that we could then use for the conservation of this species that has undergone undergone such a significant decline. Um, in some ways it was sort of a gamble because we didn't really know how uh, you know, the extent to which they were using this this environment, which you know it's still it's important to know if they're not using it certainly. Um, but uh, yeah, we didn't really know exactly what we would find when we set up. So hopefully this will work. But these are the types of scenes that we found along the way. So this is along the Sako River um just after it crosses the border from New Hampshire. Um there's a sizable bank swallow colony along this stretch of river. So uh the pilot was a huge success. So uh over this this field season uh we conducted 89 surveys which is over 400 miles of river surveyed. Uh we um we uh located 35 riparian banks swallow the colonies throughout this and some of them were were large um you know with uh hundreds of hundreds of burrows at these sites. many of them were new sites uh to to our understanding looking at um you know the available data. Um so these were sites that we didn't pick up during the atlas. Um in addition to a number of sites that were were um you know uh picked up during the atlas, we also contributed uh our observations of cliff swallows, barn swallows, and northern roughwing swallows. Um finding some new locations for those species as well, which is really uh great given the declines we've seen in those species. So, we're yeah, we're also working to um expand our uh our coverage and and develop protocols for looking at um priority areas on lakes and streams as well as coastal areas during our our subsequent survey efforts. So, these are some more of the scenes that we we uh saw out um while conducting these surveys. So, uh, yeah, you could find these nice exposed banks, uh, where you'd find these large colonies. Um, many of them were in clay, or you'd find an island in the middle of a river where a tree had fallen down, and and you could find a colony there. Um, I I there's an open-ended question, but, uh, so I wonder how many of you out there still view the bird world through the lens of the atlas. So, I have a a uh habit of of applying breeding codes to everything that I see still. So, I'm very tuned into uh phenology as as a result of the atlas and and tracking the progression of the breeding season. So, um you know, you've got the the nest building going on. We've got a fecal sack being carried um you know, young in the nest. So, um, yeah, it's it's really, uh, great to continue to apply some of the skills, uh, that I I picked up and honed during during atlasing when conducting these surveys. And looking into the future, some of the the dynamics that you see that we're kind of interested [clears throat] in studying more is looking at drivers of these declines in addition to documenting, you know, where these birds are. Uh, you know, you see evidence of predation at some of these colonies, uh, as well. So, that's something we're going to be spending some more time on. And also looking looking ahead to the future uh you know we focused our effort on rivers and we'll continue to do so. Um but we're also going to look at some uh coastal habitats and island bluffs as well because uh you know these are areas where there's longer historical records of these birds. Um so yeah, we're going to expand our efforts there also. Uh and yeah, putting in a plug. We we need your help on this effort. uh certainly would love to have many atlasers uh come over and use the the skills that they they gained while while uh atlasing. Um and they're now their familiarity with all the back roads of Maine to get to all the access sites for conducting some of these survey efforts. Um we'd love to love to have you. Uh some of the most enjoyable field work that I've done. Um and that says a lot because I've really enjoyed many of the projects I work on. So my contact is there. We're also working on developing uh some more uh resources for uh registering for this this project. So stay tuned for that. And yeah, sort of echoing some of the things that uh the others have said, uh this is just one project uh that uh has come from this this uh monumental effort that was accomplished. Um there are so many projects like this that could be launched to look at the other uh species that have uh undergone significant changes. Um not only declines but also the increases that we're seeing. There's just so many different uh different uh processes at play and um yeah this I think this book will lead to many many uh other efforts looking at uh looking at these species. So, um, let's see. And that with that I'll say thanks and I'm going to, uh, baton pass over to, uh, Adrian. And I just want to say, yeah, thank you. Thank you all for your contributions to the Atlas and, uh, you know, providing the foundation for us to uh, conduct this this initial effort and hope to see many of you in the field. >> We'll pass it to Amy. Amy's up. >> Oh, Amy. Sorry, Amy. >> No worries. Um, if Doug can hear me, I need my video on. It's not letting me turn it off. >> And Logan, I think you need to stop screen sharing. Oh, there we go. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> No worries. Hey everybody, I'm uh a well I started out the atlas as Amy Mian and I ended it as Amy McLaclin. Um, I was in charge of the the GIS um aspects of the atlas, including producing the 8,000 um block maps and uh the online uh mapping applications um and talk about good segways um what Evan and uh Logan were talking about um regarding the the Atlas data and um how it's going to be used and how you might want to use it. Um this is going to be a very brief um little presentation on archiving um the Atlas data and how you might access the digital data um because we don't want to keep all this data to ourselves. Um so with that um this is not so one of the things we've done so far um there's two reasons for archiving the atlas data. The first is that we want um this data to be accessible to whoever uh runs the next atlas. Um, and we also want it accessible to um others who might want to like Logan um use the data to um do some further research. So currently the data is available at the um digital main repository um and a few of my fellow editors on the atlas had never even heard of the digital main repository. So this is um just a screenshot of what it looks like and um what it is. Um, and at the top of the screen, hopefully you can see um the link to where you would find the um main bird atlas data that is now residing at the digital main repository. We have both the um data from this current atlas and we've also um archived data from the first atlas from 1978 to 1983. Um so that is available as well for download. Um this is a a little screenshot of what um on the on the right hand side of um just what you might see if you clicked on the Atlas observations. Um it gives you you know the be where the data came from and it has a little description and then you should be able to um hit the download button and you will get a CSV uh spreadsheet of the individual observations from the Atlas data. Um, and this is a a screenshot of um what you know some of the data from the first atlas um with a description of what that that data is and you can download that as well and and that's also in a spreadsheet. We also have shape files available um for those of you who might know how to use GIS um as well. We do have some future plans. Um we had hoped to have this ready by now but unfortunately um things did not work out the way we were hoping. But um we are hoping eventually to have an online mapping application that will allow you to query Atlas data by location and will allow you to download smaller data sets. So if somebody wanted to look at um say um yellow rump warbler records from Baxter State Park from the atlas, they might be able to download data that way for not statewide. Um and when completed um that mapping application, the link to it should be available um on the main uh the inland fisheries and wildlife um bird atlas web page which is um indicated on this slide here. And just um I just wanted to give everybody the links again. Um I know they're long and you probably won't remember them, but if you can remember the digital main repository um and the IFNW website um in the future, then googling that should should get you there. But um so stay tuned. Hopefully that mapping application will be up and running um within the next year or so. Um and with that, I'm assuming I'm handing it over to Adrian. Yes, I will bring it home. Hi everyone. Um, while I am working on screen sharing, um, I will introduce myself. I am Adrienne Lepold. I served as the project director. I, um, conceived and wrote the proposal for this project and recruited the team starting back in 2016. So, we have been at this now for 10 years. And so I have the um privilege of sharing the final product with you. I served as the state songbird specialist with Maine Fish and Wildlife during this time. Um but I also wanted to take a moment and introduce Danielle Diora. She is our bird group leader with Maine Fish and Wildlife and is the point of contact now since I have resigned. So you will notice her um on at the end as well um uh as I have left my position with the state. But back to the atlas, you've already had some teasers on the final book. So here it is. And um it is a big book. It's 9 by 12, 750 pages. So make room on your bookshelves and your coffee tables. Now, the cover art, if I can click through, um hopefully you all are seeing this. The cover art was done by main artists. The the front cover Jada Fitch and the back cover Michael Borman. We wanted to make a point of um inviting not only main artists to complete this, but individuals who were also passionate volunteers for the project. And so, um, we are really grateful to their efforts. I will give you, um, a quick summary of what is in these 750 pages, even though you've already seen a lot of that tonight. It covers everything from our editorial profiles and acknowledgements to what we are calling spotlight stories. Logan hinted at these um, and Evan may have as well earlier. And this is one of the really unique things that I'm especially proud of with this book that we are one of the very few atlases that have ever done something like this where we actually provide some expert interpretation of some of the data and results from the book and put it into essays throughout. And these range from everything covering topics of recovery stories to preserving ecological processes to covering what you saw Evan talk about where we looked at the latitudinal um and altitudinal shifts of bird communities throughout the state and also a first atlas retrospective by one of our regional coordinators, Chuck Whitney, who actually participated in the first atlas 40 years ago in Maine. And then we also dedicated a three-page spread to offering some interpretation onto one of the most startling discoveries that came from the project and it was a lot of um a lot of decline particularly in the down east region. So, in addition to all of the species accounts that you've seen hints of already tonight, these are this is also an important part of the book. This is a screenshot from our how to use this book chapter um that prefaces all of the species accounts. And just to give you an idea of how each species account is laid out in the book, breeding species get a two-page spread. Wintering species get a single page spread. And all of the graphics that you um have seen in the earlier presentations are included on each species account depending on what data was available for each species. So everything from the breeding distribution to abundance density data, the change maps, phenology information, and then written text that helps interpret all of these great graphics accompanies all of the the maps. Um, this is just kind of a zoomed in version of our Flickr page example. And I know you all have been hanging with us for a while already tonight. So, I was flipping through those pretty quickly, but I did want to touch on for those of you familiar with The Birds of Maine by Vicory Book. This came out in 2020, maybe 2021. I might have the date wrong off the top of my head, but you may already have seen how these two books differ. Certainly most notably is that the atlas contains all of these amazing graphics and maps and um documentation uh imagery of the data that was collected. But this was one of the most common questions that came up in public presentations I've given over the last year. How does the Atlas book differ from the Vicory book? And so I wanted to take a moment to mention it specifically. The Vicory book is probably the most commonly cited reference in the bird atlas book, maybe only surpassed by Maine's first breeding bird atlas that we cited. So, they really are companion tomes. The Vicory book provides a comprehensive overview and historical context of observations of all species ever observed in the state of Maine. But the atlas takes this assessment of Maine's bird life and goes into it a little bit deeper and we add that quantitative component. So while the the bird atlas is only limited to breeding and wintering species, the analysis of the data makes the bird atlas a true vital signs check for Maine's birds. It helps identify and provides information to show what birds and where are stable, what birds and where are they showing signs of stretch stress or where they might be increasing or doing well. And so that really sets these two books apart. And it's been said multiple times throughout this presentation that this whole project and this the the publication of the book now that it's going to be here does not mark an end but a beginning. The intent of this project and this wealth of knowledge and all of this data is that it will be used to help inform future inquiries, guide future research, and inform conservation actions for decades to come. And so our our hope and intent is that this bird atlas really becomes the new Bible for Maine's birds. And we hope that this has also invigorated many of you and reinvigorated that bird atlasing spirit. You've seen some examples of other citizen science projects you can contribute to. But if you really feel the urge, the next main atlas isn't planned to start for another 12 years. But New Hampshire and Vermont are kicking off their second atlas starting this December. They're adding a wintering component and then also so what year is it? So 2027 we'll kick off the breeding component. So cross the border help New Hampshire and Vermont out with their atlas and we hope that the publication of this book and what you all have contributed to and seeing that will help invigorate you to contribute to other projects. and I will give some of the publication and pre-ordering details, but we have a special treat for you as I um chat more about that. Doug is going to actually show you the physical book. So, we received the advanced copies from the University of Maine Press last week. Um, and that is how Doug got to meet Betsy. [laughter] So now you have the answer to that question. Betsy is the um publishing manager for University of Maine Press and they graciously um handled this entire process and the funding required to do this initial print run. So the initial run of this book, we have a thousand copies coming in. They are expected to be in hand by the end of October. We are planning a couple book release parties. Those probably won't happen until November. If you want to take your chances to get your hands on one of these books at one of the book release parties, we will have a couple hundred copies available for sale there. But we also will be opening up pre-orders starting tonight. And so there are five um avenues by which you can get your pre-orders in and um Glenn or Doug after he does the posting of it. This is actually the first time I'm getting to see the real book in hand too because I had to leave the state before I could pick up my advanced copy. So this is really exciting for me. That's the Down East decline article. Oh my god, it's real. Uh I'm not looking at it. I mean, I am looking at on my computer screen, but I'm not looking at a word document anymore. It's actually in print in a book. That's amazing. Um, so we will give you the information for the the pre-orders. If you would like to see a copy and feel it your for your very own self before the end of October, um, we I will have one of these advanced copies available for viewing at the Common Ground Fair. So you can find us in the environmental concerns tent at the main fish and wildlife table. Actually Doug, I forgot to ask. Is does main have a table at the fair as well this year? >> Uh we will have a table. I don't think this copy will be there. >> Okay. So there will be one copy at the fair so you can come see it for yourself then at the end of this month if you would like. And um the the pre-orders are unlimited. We will um the UI press has been wonderful to work with and they have said if we sell out of this original this initial thousand copy run, you will just be put on a waiting list for the second print run. Um, so we will definitely do another print run if needed if we sell out of this first one. So, um, yeah, I think we have definitely talked plenty tonight. Um, we've been trying to answer some questions as they've come in in the chat, but we can tend to some um, over there as well now. and Glenn has put in the links for all of the your pre-order options. So, you can choose which organization you would like to support. So, whichever link that you click on to order the book through, that um entity will receive some of the proceeds from as the book seller for this copy. So, you can have your choice of um where you would like to place your pre-orders and we can dive into some of the questions that have come in in the the Q&A. So, I do see I'm going to just work backwards and then Evan and Doug if you want to jump on and and tackle. Um, I I anticipate if you place a pre-order in the next [laughter] even in the next week, I would say it's probably a safe bet to that you will get in on the first print run. Um certainly if you order tonight you will be in the first print run and then yes my understanding is once it goes over there will be notifications that come out to inform you if you are um going to be in a second print run that would probably be like a four to six month delay but correct me if I'm wrong on that um Betsy and the the discount codes we offered um to our contributing authors and volunteer um coordinators and photographers that contributed to the book. If you are one of those individuals that are receiving a discount code, you would work directly with Glenn and Main Natural History Observatory to facilitate those orders. And I if I'm correct on that, you had you've sent out those emails already. Correct. Glenn >> Glenn, will you share um it looks like your comment with the pre-order links went to just the hosts and panelists. >> Oh, really? >> Oh, yeah. Look at that. >> It did. >> So, sorry folks, we can see it, but [laughter] >> Oh, try again. So, >> yep. Betsy was Oh, that's great. So, that would be fast for that's great. Second printing would be available about three months after we after the order. >> Adrien Lance also has a question about will the Atlas appear in bookstores around the state? >> I think there are. This is another good question for Betsy. Is that the Yes. Yeah, that's a the press has a whole list of um individual book sellers that they work closely with to get their publications in bookstores. So, >> yeah, it'll be after the pre-sale. Um and if we don't sell out, they'll end up in bookstores. If we sell out of the pre-sale, it'll take a little while until they show up in bookstores for sale. And I see Penny asked if a reference copy would be at Main Audabon's offices. Um our goal is to have them available in the store. I'm sure we'll have copies um open as well. Um where we only have this one copy right now, we're clinging to it a little more. Um, but certainly if folks know the little library we have in the um, classrooms, I'm sure we'll get a copy in there for folks to see um, anytime the building's open as well. Doug, did you catch the the question about the dove key? And that's one of the fun things about the atlas is that now you can really open turn to the turn to the dove key page and that kind of information. Um so there you know that it's just such a wealth of knowledge and information that can be used by the general public by burers by um students academics land managers. And so this really gives you um kind of a a a quick and dirty look, but then you can also always go online and access the individual data to find more specific um details about where dove keys have been reported. Another great resource for that level of specificity is on EIRD. Um but dove keys are are very um can be hit or miss in the winter. It's not a an annually [clears throat] reliably a reliable species. I or would you maybe >> Yeah. Unfortun Unfortunately, sometimes we need storms to like blow them in closer to shore. So oftent times the better viewing experiences um don't don't necessarily correlate with healthier birds. Um, but riding some of the fairies, just riding the ferry out to Monheaggan and back in the winter. Um, you can do that a couple times a week. Um, there's some options and high, you know, a nonzero chance. Someone asked about the ebook, which I don't know the answer to. Yeah, I think the plan is um uh have a print run, have a second print run if necessary, and eventually we'll sell out of copies and release uh ebook eubation, release the PDF of of the whole book at that point. Uh that's the current plan. Uh, and with all the information available um on uh a couple of websites, some that Amy was was talking about. It's, you know, you can you can currently get at all of the data um that went into the EID atlas, the bird atlas, sorry. I would assume once there's an ebook, it would be available at the IFNW Bird Atlas website as well. >> I was just question >> some of the earlier questions. Sorry, I'll just answer this quick one and then you can take the mic, Evan. There was a question about the loom count data and the heron colony data. Yes, all of those um individual species focused surveys that were completed during the Atlas period, that data was also incorporated um into the project. We we made great efforts to obtain and include as much of that as much of the state data that was collected. Um some of that was dependent upon the organizers of those projects and you know whether they got things submitted to us. Um but we um Danielle is in charge of those projects and and yes, she was um very inclusive and so to Glenn's earlier point of the the four years that went into just processing all of this data and getting it incorporated um we went to great lengths to make sure no CERN no stone was left unturned to our knowledge. longtime volunteer. Uh Lance Benner has asked us a question. So, what's the biggest surprises that resulted from the Atlas? I think for me it's the down east decline in bird populations across a lot of groups. That was not one I was expecting. I knew there was some decreases there um with boreal birds um and I was not expecting the degree that which we are seeing the the declines there. So personally that's that's my biggest surprise. I bird a lot in the down east area so it's that one snuck up on me. Okay. I'll probably stop um uh sharing just this this uh top down view, but I want one example that I like to show is with um killed deer is such an interesting species to me and um I'll make the the general statement that almost every single page or every single map as I look at it there there's like kind of something that catches me by surprise. a bit. Um, and I spent a lot of time obsessing over like eird maps and trying to get distributions right in that and and um, so seeing the added level of data that we get with a bird atlas, especially these these change maps and I'll hold up this killed in a second so you can see it without the reflection on it. But killed is a species that I just think of as being so abundant. They're just everywhere. they're like they must be doing fine. Um, and here again kind of focus on like the red arrows down especially in like the northern part of the state. Yes, there's the down east decline that we've been talking about, but so interesting and kind of a fun one to see. Spoiler alert, if you read the um the species account, it talks about the change in forestry practices in northern Maine, like not having the clear cuts anymore has actually removed some of that, you know, big open habitat that killed took so much advantage of. So, as some of the state has reforested species like killed deer, which we're not worried about, like red arrows down is not always a bad thing. Like, it's it shows that the habitat is changing there. And that was that was one that like the first time I saw that Kilder map I was like we did something wrong. Like you know that was my initial uh thought. But then that's been I guess the really fun thing is diving into all of these and and you know trying to um figure out what's really going on. >> Does anyone have a uh a positive surprise? Not a negative surprise. Let's see. >> Indigo Buntings. >> Yeah, they really increased. >> And I was the the down east decline was the the big one for me as well. But I think yeah, that was that was another one that um we highlighted in the presentation a lot and especially their increase into the North Main Woods, which Logan did a great job sort of writing an interpretive spotlight story on that phenomenon, which again gets to the maybe highlighting the shift in um forestry practices and land management and land use up there. But I think that was one I remember in the data review retreats where we were all like what it it was just not a species that was really on any of our radars and then as we were going through the data it was just like wow really they're up there. So I think that's it's not just buntings too. There was a lot of more southern kind of forest species that we started seeing more and more frequently further into the state kind of you know we're not quite sure why all they're you know why they're moving. We haven't done all those analyses yet. Um, but it does certainly give you some hope that animals have the ability to adapt to a changing climate um, in a changing environment. Um, and and we're and we're being able to see that in the state. So, that's certainly going to be an important part of bird's persistence in the future. Yeah, Merlin's another one that's it was quite a rare bird in the first atlas and it's definitely increasing and it's increasing its range to the south which is not one that you'd expect to run across very much. >> Yeah. And we saw we also saw some really big increases in in some species, but I think I don't think anyone was surprised to see bald eagles be so much more abundant. So, I'm not sure if that qualifies as a surprise, but it was, you know, a pleasant a pleasant result. >> A last one I want to mention that um I don't know if if it's the the surprise, but a thing that I'm like um curious to see about our timing with um it's a decline. Um not to dwell on these, but with Boreal Chickity. Um, that's an a fascinating one that certainly, you know, the the atlas in the 80s, like those were birds that were definitely benefiting from spruce budworm outbreak, which is like kind of an interesting underlying thing to a lot of this is that like the last atlas was done during this, you know, generally kind of boom period for a lot of a lot of birds. Um, the boreal chickies were nesting, you know, all over Washington County into Hancock County and and actually places even further west. That species has seen rapid declines along that coast, moving out of the down east region. In our atlas, there are we got a I think a couple confirmations in Washington counties and then some some lower codes. 2026. This year, if you look at EIRD data, there has not been a single even observation of boreal chickity east of Interstate 95. Um, and I I I'm dwell on that and think like that that's a very interesting snapshot in time that we captured with this atlas when when Logan does, you know, is in charge of the next atlas. um and we get to compare that data again. Um I think that'll that you know it it'll be interesting to really see these these shifts in time. I would say one non-bird surprise was uh honestly [clears throat] I was I was surprised very pleasantly by how many volunteers we had [laughter] and and generally speaking how diligent and good they were and that we got all of our blocks completed. That was an incredible amount of work and I was extremely pleasantly surprised that we that we that we'd got there >> and that's been a huge surprise. Um Evan and I in particular have been um in a lot of meetings with the the national and international committee with other atlases and it's been it's been a a kind of a point of pride because all of the other projects of other states and provinces are really kind of blown away by our volunteer numbers and our volunteer effort and I and I yeah that's >> Thank you >> for sure. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for everyone who volunteered >> and we hope to see you at our parties. We are we are over our time. We're happy to stay on and do a couple more questions if needed. But I know it's been it's been an evening already. Hopefully I already saw some comments in the in the chat thread that folks had gone on and gotten their books ordered, which is great. I I really was blown away. I I got a little emotional when you opened it up, Doug, because I couldn't believe I was like actually looking at it in print because I was going to say like, "Oh, I haven't looked at it on the computer. I've only ever seen it on the computer and it's still there." But it it is wow, that was more surreal than I was expecting to actually see it. Holy cow, that was like 10 years in the making and we did it. >> Yeah. And I' I'd love to see a lot of people at the book release celebrations. We're still setting the dates for those, but it's a chance for all of us to get together and tell our stories of the Atlas. I'm sure we all have some interesting ones to share after five years of Atlasing efforts. Um, it's a great venue to to share those stories and uh uh and celebrate the the publication with all of you. >> And I'll just acknowledge quickly the there was a quick question about speculation on the down east declines. We we talk about it in the the three-page spread. So, um you'll have to get your copy of the book, but it really is it's such a complex, uh collection of different forces and factors. And it was just amazing. It was really amazing how widespread it was. It wasn't just one kind of suite or cohort or group of species. The the declines were rid widespread. It wasn't specific to boreal birds or aerial insecttovores or grassland birds which we know are declining elsewhere. And so it's really it really prompts the exact intent of and our hope for the atlas is that it prompts future inquiry and questions and it's going to take some really species and site specific level inquiry and research to start untangling some of the driving forces behind those declines. So, a complex answer to that question, but >> not an easy answer for sure because it's across so many different species, too. It's a really interesting thing. Um, okay. I think with the final question, I'll answer is how many people are in the webinar? I think I saw it peak out at like 218 or something like that. So, um, I don't know if anyone saw a higher number, but that's that's I think the highest one I saw. Um, so thank all of you for for joining. Um, if we didn't get to your question, we apologize. [clears throat] Uh, feel free to hassle Doug Hitchcock specifically about whatever question you have. Um, and I think I saw a question about how do we how do we stay in the loop? I think if you got the email on like um uh this webinar, I think that that is going to be the easiest way to sort of stay in touch with folks. uh uh and and we will be continuing to communicate things like inerson atlas release events and web applications and any other thing that sort of comes up um and is going to be continuing to do a lot of great work around birds and the bird atlas and so I think I think looking to them and looking to other you know BRRI and main and other groups here I think are going to keep talking about the atlas as as I think people have been mentioning there's a bunch of really cool stories in the atlas and cool data so watch our social media feeds we're going to keep chatting about it. It's something that I don't think we're going to ever stop talking about hopefully um because there's just so much to talk there's so much to discuss and uh and hopefully we can we can kind of continue learning and continue using it the best we can. So >> yeah, and the main birdlasgmail.com email address is still active and one that I monitor. So if you have questions that you can't answer, um send an email to there. Um, I'll do my best. >> I couldn't talk and heart all of the comments, but it's been really nice seeing um, everybody's appreciation and excitement. So, thank you for sharing that and >> and it's been wonderful seeing, you know, some familiar names of, you know, people who have joined our Zooms for many years to to see you all again. It's been wonderful. And feel free to come visit me at the Common Ground Fair with the book. I'll be there with the book. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks everyone. We'll get this recording out soon. maine.gov/birdatlas. Uh sign up for the emails. Um thank you to all the panelists and everyone. Um and go join uh Logan's projects. Um or the the main flower survey. Boy, let me tell you, that's that's like the next thing. [laughter] >> Good night, everyone. >> New Hampshire and Vermont for Atlas. Uh,