Hi Everyone, I just wanted to give a quick update on the current progress of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II for 2008. Even though we're barely into spring, we're in the thick of breeding bird activity. Right now, several Ohio birders have turned in breeding bird data, and we have more than 800 records so far for 2008! It's hard to tell exactly how much data we had collected by this time in April 2007, but it was definitely much lower than 800 records. Nice work everyone! These 800 records represent 51 species! Of these, 21 species were submitted with confirmed nesting records. An important point to note here is that 73% of the species submitted so far were outside of their safe dates upon observation. Highlighting this fact again emphasizes that safe dates DO NOT define a species breeding season so getting out there early to do Atlas work may pay off in a big way. Any 'probable' or 'confirmed' breeding observation can be reported to OBBA2 any time of year. Species that have been confirmed so far this year are: Canada Goose Great Blue Heron Bald Eagle Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Woodcock Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Great Horned Owl Eastern Phoebe Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Carolina Chickadee Carolina Wren Eastern Bluebird American Robin European Starling Common Grackle House Sparrow If you would like more information about participating in the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II, please contact us at [log in to unmask] or (614) 247-6458. Keep up the good work out there and we hope to see you in the field! Aaron Boone Project Coordinator Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II (614) 247-6458 www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/ ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]