Virginia

The Ides of March have passed, so we’re half-way through the survey period for contributing to the Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz.  Virginia has made a good start with its part of the survey.  In the map below I have summarized those sightings which have been submitted to ebird thus far.  As you can see there are some clusters of activity and some places in our lovely state that haven’t yet reported any Rusty Blackbirds.  If you’ve completed some surveys but have yet to submit the results, please do so.  If you’ve put off getting out and looking for Rusties, your time to spring into action is now.  I know the weather hasn’t been kind.  But visit those good Rusty Blackbird habitats and check them out.  For those who may have lost the link to the website, here it is with all its information on habitat preferences, identification tips, survey protocol, data sheets, and more:
http://rustyblackbird.org/outreach/migration-blitz/
Let’s finish the month in true Blitz fashion.

Rusty Blackbird distribution in Virginia, March 2014

Explore the eBird data map. http://goo.gl/m1Im6r. Click on “Show Points Sooner” in the right column if they don’t show immediately.

Bob Ake
State coordinator for Virginia
Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz