Photo ©
Keith Williams
More Historic Data Uploaded
This month we were pleased to upload another 16,000 historic nest records into NestWatch thanks to the efforts of our tireless Nest Quest Go! volunteers. This includes 4,654 nests of a dozen finch species and 11,342 nests of Red-winged Blackbirds spanning the years 1912–2010. We’re so thankful for the volunteers who are helping to back-fill our historic database with these valuable records!
Getting Caught Up in Kansas
We are often asked if it’s “too late” to submit your data from the previous year(s). The answer is that it’s never too late. This month we were happy to bulk upload 1,515 nest records courtesy of the Bluebird Stewards of the Johnson County Kansas Extension Master Naturalist program. The pandemic disrupted their data submissions, but they managed to send all records from 2020–2022 for 8 species.
We thank Vince Petrillo for coordinating on the data upload, and all of the volunteers for their efforts. And if you need to get caught up, too, then you’re in good company! Try starting here.
Welcome New Chapter
A big Texas “welcome” to our newest NestWatch Chapter, the Bluestem Chapter Texas Master Naturalists! This Chapter is headed by Michael Petersen and the group monitors 18 nest boxes in and around Whitesboro, Texas. Thanks for joining us!
Interested in joining a chapter? View our Chapter Map.
New Data Downloads For Researchers
New this month, researchers who need to access the NestWatch raw data for formal analyses can now download it directly from our website. The NestWatch Open Dataset is a static dataset that will be updated annually every January (meaning it does not get refreshed daily). Note that these raw data files are large and require proficiency in statistical software or advanced database tools to make the most of them. We hope that this new tool increases the use of our dataset among researchers!
For more casual data users (e.g., participants, the general public, journalists), we suggest starting with our Project-wide Data Downloads. These files are smaller and easier to manipulate without needing specialized analytical software.