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A Major Milestone

Many NestWatchers have heard about our efforts to digitize the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s historical collection of nest record cards. This work has involved three years of scanning paper forms, transcribing the handwritten notes, and cleaning the data. We are thrilled to announce that this month, we have begun uploading the first datasets into NestWatch. Wood Ducks, Killdeer, and Mountain Bluebirds were the first 3 species sets uploaded, yielding a total of 6,736 records spanning from 1920–2010. There are dozens more species waiting to be uploaded as fast as we can process them!

This work is ongoing, and your help is still needed to quicken the pace! There are numerous species remaining to be digitized through our Nest Quest Go! project. Get the details here, and join in if you can.