October 2007

TOPIC:  The Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas Project

SPEAKER:  Noel Cutright

WHEN:  Tuesday, October 16

TIME:  7:30 pm Program

WHERE: UW Arboretum

PRE-MEETING DINNER: You are invited to join our speaker, MAS board members and friends at the pre-program dinner at Paisan's Restaurant (131 West Wilson St.) beginning at 5:00 p.m.

QUESTIONS?:  Please call the MAS office at (608)255-2473 if you have questions.

So how do you take more than 160,000 valid bird records from 1995 through 2000 collected by 1,602 observers and turn it into the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Wisconsin? The Atlas is a milestone in Wisconsin ornithology, the largest natural history survey ever conducted in Wisconsin. To attain these records, observers spent almost 70,000 hours in the field and drove more than a half million miles.

Join us to hear Noel Cutright, one of the editors of the Atlas describe the project. Why was it undertaken? What is the value of the information? Cutright will also talk about some of the things we have learned in the course of collecting the data. Which birds are in trouble? Which ones are increasing?

Cutright recently retired as a Senior Terrestrial Ecologist with We Energies and is now has an Emeritus Scientist relationship with the company. He is a Past-President and current Historian of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and founder of the Riveredge Bird Club. He has previously talked to us about his breeding bird marathon, the Quad 30 Campaign, www.quad30campaign.org.