It's a new month, and past time I explained safe dates. Safe dates are a tool the Atlas uses to distinguish breeding birds from migratory birds. They only apply to Possible or Probable records; if you have a Confirmed record, you've confirmed breeding, you know it's breeding and not migratory. Each species is assigned safe dates based on their ecology. So all of the mated pairs of hawks I've seen don't count as Probable records because those sightings were before their safe dates.
Today's trip was to the North Campus of Miami Dade College. I found one confirmed record in the short half-hour I was there. The mere presence of a bird in suitable habitat during their safe dates counts as Possible records, so I have a few of those too.
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| Egyptian Geese |
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| Northern Mockingbird |
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| A dead non-native something |
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| Mottled Ducks |
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| Fish Crow carrying nesting material |
Miami-Dade has 213 blocks and only 78 (now 79!) of them have any data at all. I have to remind myself that even though I'm not an expert and I don't have as much time to devote to this as I'd like, I'm having a big impact in this tiny corner of the scientific universe. Hopefully, it'll be put to good use someday.
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