21 February 2008    

Dear atlasers

This is the first of our new-look, web-based newsletters which we will be using in all future postings to sabap2-l. The file will either be displayed in the body of the email or will come as an attachment. If it comes as an attachment, by double-clicking it, it will open in your default browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox) but you will need to be connected to the internet in order to view any images.

All newsletters will also be available on the SABAP2 website.

A reminder that this list is moderated and that replies to this email will be sent to the sender, and NOT to the entire list. The sabap2chat-l listserver is an open forum where postings are sent to all members who are subscribed to the list. Should you wish to join the "Chat" forum click here to subscribe.

1. Summer Challenge results

The results of the summer challenge are in. A total of 89 observers submitted 616 checklists during the challenge period (4 Dec 2007 - 28 Januray 2008). The no. of checklists submitted represents an almost 50% increase in the no. of average monthly submissions for the five months preceding the challenge!

The biggest challenge, no doubt, was seeing how many new pentads could be surveyed by a single atlaser. Although the summer holidays proved challenging enough, in the end the top roll of honour goes to four atlasers who managed to survey more than 15 new pentads each (that's about 2 pentads per week on average). Ernst Retief tops the list with 19, while Stefan Terblanche and Tony Archer surveyed 18 previously un-atlased pentads. Andre Marx managed to cover 17 new pentads. Interestingly all four atlasers reside in Gauteng and based on the pentads they covered most of them covered areas outside of their own home province. Well done guys!

Other notable achievements were John Sewards, and Niall Perrins submitting over 30 checklists each during this period, while John also tops the list with the most number of pentads covered during the challenge, 31. Etienne Marais covered the most number of new pentads in the Northern Cape, 5, while three observers (Robyn Kadis, Dave Persse and Japie Claassen) all submitted six checklists each for a single pentad during the challenge.

Thanks to everyone who made a special effort during the 'silly season' to get to new areas. We hope you all enjoyed the challenge. Your contributions have gone a long way to improving the overall coverage for the atlas. A list of all the top-achievers in each category are available on the website (click on 'Summer challenge' in the left-hand menu).

A Late Summer Challenge is being planned ...more details to follow soon.


2. Advanced atlasing

The Steering Committee for SABAP2 held a teleconference on 4 December last year. One of the items on the agenda was an assessment of the fieldwork protocol. The teleconference agreed that the current fieldwork protocol was satisfactory, and endorsed it on the basis of the experiences over the first few months of the project.

It did, however, recommend some clarifications and extensions. This document aims to achieve this.

PLEASE NOTE: The extensions described below are, for the time being, for information purposes only. As soon as the necessary updates to the Data Management System have been completed we will make an announcement as to when these will come into effect.

1. Does the basic protocol remain unaltered?

The Steering Committee affirms that the first priority of SABAP2 is to undertake fieldwork in such a way that it commences with two (or more) hours of intensive and continuous fieldwork, and that additional species can be added to the checklist for the pentad over a five day period starting on the day of intensive fieldwork. The objective of the initial period of intensive fieldwork should be to cover the pentad as thoroughly as feasible (subject to safety and access concerns) with a “Birding Big Day” approach, ie to see as many species as possible during this period. You use all the birding tactics and cunning that you can muster to extract as long a list as possible out of the pentad.

2. Does the initial period of intensive fieldwork need to be continuous?

There are inevitably circumstances in which a continuous period of fieldwork is not practical. So it is deemed satisfactory to break the period of continuous fieldwork. One example of when a break in fieldwork is inevitable is this: there are two access points into a pentad, and you have to travel outside the pentad, along roads in adjacent areas, and get back into the pentad maybe an hour or more later. Another possibility, especially in suburban areas, is when you have to drive along a busy road from one area (a nature reserve) in a pentad to another (a small wetland) (never actually going out of the pentad). Obviously, then, one ought to stop “diligent atlasing” for say 30 minutes (although one should add the House Sparrow, the House Crow and the Redwing Starling you see outside the shopping mall). Observers sometimes also have time constraints.

Your schedule might only allow you to do an hour of fieldwork in the evening, and you can carry on next morning for an hour (or longer). Or you might be able to do an hour, have to attend a meeting, and then be able to continue atlasing. Other interruption possibilities are when you see something really fascinating, and stop and watch for 20 minutes; you have to stop for 30 minutes to collect a permit, fix a puncture, chat to a farmer; or you spend 30 minutes staring at Roberts, SASOL and Newmans, debating the ID of a species, and not doing any fieldwork.

In all these cases the observation period is not going to be continuous, and appropriate periods should be added onto the time periods.

On submission, enter the date and time of the start of the first period of intensive period, and the cumulative species totals at the end of each “hour” of fieldwork. There is no need to report the gaps in the fieldwork.

We emphasize that there is no need to use a stopwatch to do atlasing. Common sense should prevail. All we ask is that you do your best to record the number of species to within hourly errors of about five minutes.

3. Can I add species seen prior to the intensive period of fieldwork?

Consider the following scenario. You arrive at a destination on Friday afternoon to do a weekend’s atlasing, planning to do the intensive period of fieldwork on Saturday morning. On Friday evening you see a bunch of species, and make a list of them. How should these be included on the checklist? The recommended procedure is to do the period of intensive fieldwork on Saturday morning, and to enter the species seen during this period first. Now go back to the Friday list, and cross out the species that were seen during the intensive fieldwork, and add these as additional species. Then add any further species you might see subsequently over the weekend. The overall time period for adding additional species should not exceed five days. Enter the date and time of the start of the initial period of intensive fieldwork. There is no need to report that some of the species were seen a day (or two) prior to this date!

4. How should we do the reporting if a team of people atlas a pentad?

Consider the following scenario. Access to a pentad is so messy that the only way to do it is to do it as a team (some of the pentads on the Cape Peninsula fall into this category). Suppose two or three teams go out and each atlases their section. How do we submit the data? Various alternatives are possible, but this is the recommended approach. Allow each person to atlas intensively, recording the species according to the atlas protocol. Gather all the data. Find out which person obtained the longest list after two hours. Use this list as the one for the period of intensive fieldwork, and add the additional species seen by the remaining atlasers to this list.

5. Suburbs are a pain to atlas. Can you suggest any tricks?

When a pentad encompasses suburbs, 8 km × 8 km becomes a daunting area. Here is a suggestion for doing a pentad by a combined effort. You, as the atlaser, take the lead. You liaise with birders living within a pentad, and agree on a five day period, and each birder makes a separate list for their neighbourhood. As atlaser, you do the two-plus hours of intensive fieldwork at some point in the five-day period, visiting all the “best” birding spots you can find (eg the golf-course, the little wetland, the small park, etc). You enter your list first, and then add on the additional species in the remaining lists made by the birders.

6. Can you make it easier to submit incidental records?

Yes, we have. The new version of the Data Management System will make provision to submit incidental records “in bulk”. We recognize two situations where this facility will be useful. The first is when you are unable to do a full two hours of intensive atlasing in a pentad, but in spite of this you have made a useful list of species. The second is when you make what you feel is pretty comprehensive list for the pentad over a period of five days or less, but there has been no “intensive period of atlasing”. The new version of the Data Management System will ask the question: “Does this checklist include an intensive period of atlasing of at least two hours?” If the answer to this question is “No”, then the list is turned into a series of “incidental observations”. These data are invaluable for mapping the distributions of species.

7. How will incidental observations be treated?

They will be used in species distribution maps. For example, on the current distribution maps on the website, records of species made during fieldwork that conforms to the protocol are shown in red; incidental observations are shown in yellow. Incidental records will not be used in the sophisticated analyses done by macro-ecologists and biogeographers, which is why the Steering Committee is keen that as much data as possible should come in via the standard fieldwork protocol. Pentads for which incidental observations exist will not be shown on the “coverage map”, at least for the time being. Our first priority is to obtain as many records as possible through the standard protocol, which includes (in one way or another) a two-hour-plus period of intensive fieldwork.

The SABAP2 project team