Longtime Los Angeles birders will remember the massive volunteer effort that went into the Los Angeles County Breeding Bird Atlas. Fieldwork for that project was from 1995 to 1999, which will be 30 years ago in 2025. Given the time that has passed and the changes in the county, birders are thinking about an update of the Atlas.
The original Bird Atlas was for breeding birds only, but some bird atlases also incorporate wintering surveys. In contemplation that “round two” of the Los Angeles County atlas might include winter surveys, the relatively new group Los Angeles Birders has embarked on a trial effort for a winter bird atlas that is currently underway and continues until February 15, 2022.
The trial winter bird atlas uses eBird as a means to compile all bird observations in 12 census blocks from the original atlas. For those new to the atlas, a “block” is an area that is one-sixth of a standard USGS topographic quadrangle map. For the ongoing winter trial, one of those blocks is in Los Angeles Audubon Society territory (South Gate Northwest). (Our “territory” includes those zip codes assigned to us by National Audubon, as distinct from those assigned to other LA County chapters.) The Pasadena Southeast block is also a trial location and looks to intersect LAAS territory in Northeast Los Angeles.
We encourage all birders to participate in the trial winter atlas by heading out to the hotspots within each of the trial atlas blocks, or birding within those blocks and reporting results using personal hotspots. Working out the logistics of using eBird for atlasing is one of the goals of this effort, so go for it. The blocks targeted for the winter atlas range from the urban to the wild, so there are many experiences to be had contributing to this effort.
A full description of the blocks, with an interactive map and atlas protocols is over at the Los Angeles Birders website. Or you can watch this presentation going over the project on YouTube.