In the Belly of the GBBC Beast #8

In case you thought the GBBC ended on Feb 20--let me tell you, its just getting going! I've had to respond to more emails today, the day after the count period, than any day yet. And we'll still probably get tens of thousands of additional checklists in. As of this morning, we were at 561 species and over 40,000 checklists--way above where we were last year at this time.

As I posted on BIRDCHAT, here are the state
(and provincial) standings, based on percentage of regular species reported:

1. West Virginia (84/65--may need to adjust their expected list)--129%
2. Tennessee (117/120)--98%
3. Nova Scotia (111/115)--97%
4. Pennsylvania (118/123)--96%
5. Texas (340/358)--95%
6. Indiana (111/123)--94%
6. New York (144/154)--94%
8. Florida (248/269)--92%
8. Kentucky (110/120)--92%
10. Wisconsin (108/119)--91%

Here's how the states fall, by percentage of expectations:
0-10 2 provinces (none from Northwest Territories)
11-20 0
21-30 0
31-40 2
41-50 4
51-60 6
61-70 5
71-80 19
81-90 15
90-100 10
100+ 1

I'd really love to see that mode move up to the 90+ range (OK, I'd love it if it was actually in the 100+ range, but that's my evil inner birder self that I'm trying to repress).

So, how do you get your state numbers up now that the count is "over"? Check out the list of species that are reported for your state, looking for species that haven't been reported yet.

Then, think to yourself...did someone, somewhere in the state, see that bird this past weekend? If your answer is yes...or your suspicion is yes, then your job is to make sure that species gets into the database somehow. Sound like a challenge? Something to keep you busy at work now that the holiday weekend is over and you're not really feeling like jumping into that pile of paperwork waiting for you on your desk (just kidding, the GBBC does NOT encourage slacking off at work! Get off the non-work related email now!).

So, Phase I is the fun birding part. No we're full into Phase II--the fun part that makes or breaks the count where we round up as many checklists and species as we can from all the fun we had in Phase I.