Editor’s note: In 2009, following the completion of the last atlas, Paul Kreiss wrote this blockbusting advice. Blockbusting, or a ‘block party’, is intensive, targeted atlasing, usually by a group, of an underatlased block. Paul graciously allowed me to reprint his advice in the newsletter, and add any relevant revisions. I have modified a few things to avoid confusion (like references to territoriality, which functioned like code S7 does now), but have tried to keep his excellent advice as unaltered as possible. Enjoy!
In the Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas 2, I started out as an atlaser, eventually adopting six blocks. In the fourth year of the atlas, I became a County Coordinator for Baltimore, joining Debbie Terry and Elliot Kirschbaum. Elliot had charge of data entry and analysis; Debbie, the atlasers. My responsibility was in setting up and running blockbusting. So, based on my atlasing experience, I have advice for atlasers, particularly for blockbusting.
Start blockbusting in the second year; we waited until the fourth year and that was late. If the blockbusters consist of only one team, you can do 4–5 blocks a year if there are no data for the blocks, and 9–11 per year if there are a fair amount of data already collected for the blocks.
Trip Frequency
Ideally, you should do ten trips per block (and I don’t want to hear at any point any comments about how unreasonable any of this advice is; I am assuming conditions are ideal, and I know they won’t be). If the block has little data, it will generally not be possible to do more than one block on a trip. I think the only time we did more than one block was with the Sparrows Point blocks, where two of the three blocks were either water or the Sparrows Point steel works. If the block has a lot of data and you are really only looking for a few species, it might be possible to do more than one block in a trip.
Trip 1
One person in January or February, night owl calling. Plan for a 1–6 hour trip to cover all wooded areas in the block. It is possible to cover more than one block in a night, particularly if you get owl responses early on in the first block; I have done as many as three blocks in one night. If you get an owl responding to playback, you can use code T (territorial). On the other hand, if hear a single owl calling without using playback, you should return for a second trip a week later to get code S7 (singing for a week or more).
Trip 2
One person in January or February at least one week after trip 1, night owl calling again. This will be a 1–4 hour trip to pick up any previous owls that were reported as code S and thus get code S7. Or, if no owls were heard on trip 1, a second try for owls. Not required of course if owls are Confirmed or Probable, or if the habitat is such that there aren’t likely to be owls. Again, it may be possible to do more than one block, particularly if you are only checking a spot to see if an owl can be called there again.
Trip 3
One person during the day in January or March. This will be a four-hour trip to find nests before the leaves come out; this is looking particularly for large stick nests of raptors and herons, and is likely to be unproductive. You should also watch for pairs of vultures near potential nest sites; these will be worth following up on later in the year.
Trip 4
This will be a group trip in mid-May. Head out in the morning, starting a bit after daybreak—anywhere from 6:30 to 7:30, and lasting until 10:30 or 11:30. By that time usually everyone is hot, hungry, and tired. This first group trip is to pick up species with early safe dates, and to pick up birds that are singing and setting up territories. Code S7 is okay if one of the dates for singing is outside the safe dates, as long as the other one is within safe dates (and as long as the species can be reasonably considered to be breeding in the block). Atlasers should record where birds are singing on a map or in the species comments box on the checklist. Record the same information for less common species or species not within safe dates, so later trips can try to upgrade them from Possible to Confirmed.
Trip 5
One person a week later than trip 4. This will be a 1–4 hour trip. Go back to the locations where birds were reported to be singing, listen for them again, and upgrade to code S7. It may be possible to do more than one block on this trip.
Trip 6
This is another group morning trip, this time in June. Pick up species with later safe dates and begin to pick up fledglings. Again, for species that are singing, record where they are for use during trip 7.
Trip 7
One person, one week later than trip 6, a 1–4 hour trip. Go back to the locations where birds were reported to be singing, listen for them again, and upgrade to code S7. Again, it may be possible to do more than one block.
Trip 8
This will be a morning group trip in July or early August. Pick up late nesting species and fledglings.
Trip 9
One person, one week later than trip 8, for 1–4 hours. Go back to the locations where birds were reported to be singing, listen for them again, upgrade to code S7. This is also about the time for goldfinch young to be calling, which gives Confirmation for goldfinch (code FL; recently fledged young). It may be possible to do more than one block.
Trip 10
One person, if goldfinch weren’t Confirmed on trip 9. Do a trip listening for goldfinch begging calls. It may be possible to do more than one block; I did five blocks once in one long trip.
In addition to these trips, if a mini-route was run get information from the mini-route results where birds were heard and do a follow up one week later for code S7.
These trips will require some coordination, so it is best to have a group leader in charge of organizing things. It’s also helpful to keep the County Coordinator informed of your plans and progress so that efforts are not unintentionally doubled. If, after looking at the results of this season, with these trips there aren’t enough species or the percentage of Confirmations are too low, then repeat the following year or years. And if you can’t do all these trips, then you can pretty much assume that another year’s or years’ efforts will be required.
We usually did two group trips in the second atlas, with one or two follow-up trips by me or another blockbuster, mostly to get territoriality (now code S7) and upgrade Possible to Probable. I have data for two blocks to show how this worked:
New Freedom CW
Before the first blockbusting trip we did there were 19 species total: ten Possible, six Probable and three Confirmed. The first group trip raised this to 61 species (78% of the final number for this block): 31 Possible, 12 Probable, 18 Confirmed. The second group trip raised this to 77 species (99% of the final number for this block): 15 Possible (19%), 28 Probable (38%) and 33 Confirmed (43%). The final results were 78 species, 12 Possible, 30 Probable and 35 Confirmed. Thus, the second group trip really got about everything the atlas ended up with and met the criteria for percentage of Probable (50%) and Confirmed (25%). However, note that for Baltimore County as a whole, the median Confirmed percentage was 50%, so this was a bit low. Blocks that were done much more intensively by atlasers had the percentage Confirmed up around 65–70% (these percentages do not count observed species).
Lineboro NE
Before the first blockbusting trip here, there were just two species reported and both were Observed. The first group trip raised this to 64 species (86% of the final number for this block): 32 Possible, 10 Probable and 22 Confirmed. The second group trip raised this to 73 species: 8 Possible (11%), 30 Probable (41%) and 35 (48%) Confirmed. The only change in the final results were six Probable species that were upgraded to Confirmed so, again, the second trip got about everything the block ended up with.
Trip Scheduling and Preparation
One group blockbusting trip per week is a good goal for a county to aim for. These trips should start in late May and continue through late July and early August. Picking the same day every week makes trips predictable and allows people to set it aside. I chose a weekday, since I didn’t want to tie up weekends; blockbusters also may not be available on weekends. A weekday trip had the advantage of no one out mowing their lawns drowning out bird calls, but the disadvantage of heavy commuter traffic and not being able to find people to ask them about their bird feeders or bird houses. Anyone volunteering to blockbust should know that they are not required to be involved every week and that joining even one trip is useful. There are never too many blockbusters. We either met at a park-and-ride or church parking lot and then carpooled to the block, or met within the block and then divided up into teams. Meeting within a block is better since blockbusters can start recording birds as they wait for people to arrive. I wrote my list of potential blockbusters twice a week; once to give details of the next blockbusting trip—where to meet, which block, what time, etc.— and once to give everyone the results of that trip—species seen, numbers of Observed, Possible, Probable, and Confirmed, and what especially interesting things happened. I also asked people to let me know if they were planning to come.
In BBA2, we used paper maps and lists, so the organizer needed to have four block maps with boundaries marked and four copies of the current atlas results for that block so that blockbusters can see what species need to be found. I made copies of both a USGS map and an ADC map (the USGS maps weren’t up to date enough and didn’t have the names of the roads); I enlarged both somewhat for easy reading. Access to a free Xerox machine is thus useful. I did not pass maps and results out in advance; that might have been useful so people could prepare, although the logistics of getting them to prospective blockbusters would have been laborious. As an organizer, it is useful to point out to blockbusters where the good habitats are on their quadrant (if you know, and you probably should).
Techniques
The ideal blockbusting team consists of at least eight people, at least four of which are experienced atlasers and thus know the rules. Baltimore County’s blocks were divided into quarters; the eight people divide into four teams, each team having at least one experienced atlaser and getting one of the quadrants. Two people see and hear more birds than one, and younger folks sometimes have better hearing than older folks. If there weren’t enough people, we sometimes put one person on a quadrant, and sometimes a team had to do two quadrants. We had as few as three people. We were lucky in having Bob Ringler on most trips; he could by himself do two quadrants excellently.
If the block is rural, the team should drive along all the roads of the quadrant. At likely spots, park the car and walk. Likely spots include along wooded areas, streams, brushy fields, schools, golf courses, transmission lines, etc. Stop at any house that has bird feeders or bird houses and ask the inhabitants what they have seen (and if the inhabitants show interest, recruit them to supply data). Drive to every barn and ask the owner about Barn Owls (and pigeons, starlings, Barn Swallows, and House Sparrows if these species are still needed). Walk through parks and cemeteries. It is sometimes possible to get onto private property, but during weekdays it may be hard to find the owners. Generally, it takes the whole morning to do a quadrant, but if there are extensive public areas complete coverage will not be possible. The follow-up trip may be the time to complete coverage. Blockbusters need to focus on species that are needed and skip any that are already Confirmed. For urban blocks, it is not only impossible to drive every street, but it is also unproductive. Instead, do parks, cemeteries, any water, schools, woods, fields, wooded residential areas, etc.
Training Tips
If you are helping a new volunteer learn how to atlas, it’s useful to do a training trip with them. This could be as a group or individually, and could be to their own block or to an unassigned block. The new atlaser should first learn what areas are likely to be good habitats for birds, such as streams, lakes, and bays, wooded cemeteries, wooded parks, farm buildings, wooded residential areas, etc.
Next, they should learn that atlasing is slow, unlike birding trips. When you see a bird, you stop and watch to see if it picks up nesting material, whether it has a mate, whether is it carrying food to young, or whether it is agitated because there is a nest or young nearby. You may have to follow it to discover that this Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is flying to a colony.
And finally, they should learn about atlasing tricks, such as if you have transmission lines running through the block, kingbirds like the transmission towers. Red-winged Blackbirds can be found around the run-off ponds near shopping centers, new commercial buildings, and new tract housing. Every time you hear a bird singing, go back there a week later, because that is one of the easiest ways of getting a bird to Probable status. Cardinal young have a distinctive call. There is no excuse for not having goldfinch Confirmed if they occur in your block because the young have a strong begging call and all you have to do is hear it, and the young hatch out late, in late July and August, when nothing else is going on.
Talk to everyone who has a feeder or birdhouse. If you don’t have bluebirds, put up bluebird boxes yourself in cemeteries, golf courses, etc. (well, you will have to get permission first). Try to recruit every birder in your block to submit atlasing data. The first year, go over every street in your block so you know every type of habitat and where the good habitats are. When you see an unusual species, spend a lot of time watching it, and go back again and again until you can get it Confirmed. Make multiple trips, every week if you can, to the good habitats. Do evening and night trips to find nightjars and owls. Expect that it is going to take three years to get good results.
In my home block, Baltimore West CW, by the end of the first year I had 73 species (85% of the final number, which included six Observed species) and 37 Confirmations (43% of the total number of species). At the end of the second year, I had 77 species (90% of the final number) and 42 Confirmed (49% of the total number of species). By the end of the third year, I had 82 species (97% of the final number) and 55 Confirmed (64% confirmed). I had to learn these tricks myself, and some of them I didn’t learn until the last year of the atlas.
Author: Paul Kreiss, Baltimore County Coordinator