Photo © G. C. Embody

What’s Old Is New

Did you know that NestWatch can accept historic data going back all the way to 1900? If you have old notebooks or data sheets full of nesting observations just sitting around gathering dust, why not enter them into NestWatch?

Now, more than ever, we need baseline data with which to compare modern nesting behavior. In this time of changing climate and habitat, you can give new relevance to forgotten data by adding it to our permanent collection of nest monitoring records.

How do you enter old data? The same way you enter modern data! Data should be similar to that currently collected by NestWatch. That means you need, at a minimum, a location, a species, and preferably an outcome (although unknown nest fates are accepted). Number of eggs, chicks, and fledglings, along with first-egg dates, will be particularly helpful. Simply enter the data as you normally would, using our online system. NestWatch may ask for information that you don’t have (for example, time of day the nest was visited) but do the best you can, realizing that data are still valuable even if some fields are missing. If you have hundreds of old nest records, ask about our Bulk Import Tool. As always, contact us if you have questions about entering data, historic or current.