Announcements May and June 2021

 Announcements and Updates for May and June 2021

Goslings at Greenfield Lake from May 2nd, 2021

Hello readers, I hope that things have been good this spring. The world situation is looking a little better and many of us are able to return to some of our activities, including going out on organized nature outings. It is hard to believe that it has now been over a year since I started this blog. I have provided useful information and insight about birds, and other wildlife in the Carolinas and included tips on how to improve our gardens to attract wildlife and help the environment. In this post I will go over some announcements and upcoming changes to the blog for the Summer of 2021. 

New Hanover County Bird Study

On May 15th, 2021, I finished my bird survey of New Hanover County NC which has been a six year project going back to 2015. This document contains all of the reported bird species reported within the county along with additional species that have been reported in other counties and could one day turn up in the region. I also included species descriptions, information about ecology, habitat, conservation status, and observational notes as well as seasonal trends based on data uploaded to eBird.org. I am releasing this document as an open access reference and you are welcome to downloaded or use it in any way. Please make sure you provide credit to the author and properly cite the resource if it is used for any research, guides, or uploaded to another website or blog. I hope to expand this project into a formal research project in the future, perhaps as a project for my university studies.  You can find the  PDF and link to the Google Drive on the New Hanover County Bird Study Page.

 Posting Schedule Updates  

As I have noted in January 2021, I have made some adjustments to the posting schedule for Carolina Bird Gardens and More because of changes in personal, family, and school life. I will continue to post regular articles on the blog with the goal of maintaining twice monthly uploads. However, I will be taking some summer school classes at the university in May and June and my workload is expected to be higher than normal (though thankfully the classes are all online so I do not have to go to the campus). As a result of this and ongoing personal and family projects, I may not be able to meet the twice monthly articles. Instead, I plan to work on longer-format articles similar to the Old Field Succession or Hedgerow article to provide more content and explain some concepts in depth. As always I will continue to maintain the quality and scientific integrity I have always strived to maintain. Additionally, I may also experiment with shorter format posts such as birdwatching reports, photo uploads, or home remedies to pests such as fire ants which may be a little different from my normal content. 

I will continue to refine the blog to represent urban and suburban ecology in Southeastern North Carolina and beyond and hope to add more standalone pages for subjects. One of the subjects I hope to cover in this format is a full history and guide to Greenfield Lake Park which is my main study area for birds and wildlife and a good example of an urban park with high biodiversity. Stay tuned for uploads and more updates and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to go out into the field or work on their gardens this summer. 

Curtis Downey.