Michigan Birds and Natural History winter season

[Brad Murphy]

Birders,

As many of you are aware the winter reporting season for North American 
Birds and  Michigan Birds and Natural History began on December 1st and ends 
on February 28th.

I would first like to thank all of you who report your sightings on an 
annual basis. I would also like to invite the rest of you to become 
participants, if you currently are not. The forms for the current winter 
season have already been mailed out, but I will be more than happy to email 
them to you upon request. For future seasons you can request the forms from 
Michigan Audubon Society at MAS at michiganaudubon.org. In the body of your 
email just request the seasonal survey forms for Michigan Birds and Natural 
History and include your name and address. I cannot stress enough how 
valuable the information that each of you provide is. Without your sightings 
we would have a very broken record of bird distribution and concentration 
for the state of Michigan. I am appealing to all of you because my best 
guess is that fewer than one-third of Michigan’s birders are currently 
participating with seasonal surveys. It is nearly impossible for the 
seasonal compilers to monitor email daily to keep track of all of the 
sightings on the different lists that this state has. With the amount of 
work that each survey requires, your participation would be invaluable to us 
all. I am hoping for participation levels that make future issues more 
thorough than they have ever been.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Michigan Birds and Natural 
History, it is a publication of the Michigan Audubon Society. It is 
published five times a year including seasonal surveys for the spring, 
summer, fall, and winter, as well as Christmas Bird Count and North American 
Migration Count totals. Also, a summary of the actions of the Michigan Bird 
Records Committee is provided annually.

Currently the cost for subscription to Michigan Birds and Natural History is 
$25.00 a year. To subscribe you can visit
http://www.michiganaudubon.org/mbnh/mbnh_home.html or send your name, 
address, phone number, and payment to:

	Michigan Birds and Natural History
	6011 W. St Joseph Hwy
	Lansing, MI 48917

The managing editor of Michigan Birds and Natural History is Jim Granlund. 
Jim has done an amazing job keeping the journal on track and I would like to 
commend him for that. We are now including more photographs in the journal 
and I encourage people to send photos of rarities, interesting sightings, 
etc., as your photos may be published. We are also in need of articles for 
the journal. If you have an idea or are interested in writing an article for 
the journal please contact Jim Granlund at granlund at chartermi.net.

Lastly, species that are very rare or difficult to identify may require 
documentation to be included. If you notice that a particular species 
requires documentation please take the time to do so. If we do not receive 
documentation we cannot include it in the surveys. We find it just as 
frustrating to exclude sightings due to lack of documentation as it is for 
you to realize you had a great sighting that has been left out. Remember, we 
can never be too thorough. If you have any questions about this, the 
seasonal compilers are always willing to answer any questions you may have. 
Thank you for your understanding.

I am very excited with all that is happening at Michigan Birds and Natural 
History and I hope all of you will take the time to be part of it. Thank you 
for your contributions and good birding!

Sincerely,

Brad Murphy
winter compiler