Upper Cumberland Region YardWatch: Methodology
Note: The YardWatch Project will not be active during 2005; it may be reactivated during a later year.
Participation in YardWatch is quite simple. Just keep a list of species seen within your yard or your neighborhood for each month of the year if you live within one of the Upper Cumberland counties, listed at this page of my website:
The monthly list should contain only those species that you saw or heard while you were physically within either your yard or neighborhood, though the birds themselves may have been either within or slightly outside your yard or neighborhood. You should establish the exact boundaries of the area you plan to count in during the first month that you participate in YardWatch; after that, simply count within that exact area each month, making no changes to the area surveyed. There is no limit to the number of hours you may expend making observations for YardWatch (except, of course, the total number of hours in a month); whatever time you can afford to spend noting the birds in your yard or neighborhood will be fine (however, at some point I may ask for information on effort expended per month, but that point has not yet arrived).
A yard is defined as the property surrounding your place of residence, as long as it is 5 acres or less in extent; if you are counting on more than 5 acres, then you should submit data for your neighborhood. A neighborhood is defined as a circle (or other shape) surrounding your home out to a distance of no more than one-third of a mile. When you submit YardWatch data the first time, specify whether you are submitting a list for your yard or your neighborhood; if the latter, specify about how large a circle (or other area) you are counting in.
I will accept lists that come from places of work if the habitat around these work places is conducive to finding birds; e-mail me with a description of the site if you are in doubt about whether it will serve as a YardWatch site. It is permissible to submit lists from both your place of residence and your place of work for a given month or months.
Submit the list to me for a given month by the 10th day of the next month at my professional e-mail address:
For species that are very uncommon or rare within the Upper Cumberland Region or that are unexpected during the month observed, submit the date(s) when you observed the bird after the name of the species in the checklist you turn in; also submit an appropriate level of documentation for such species.
The list of species you submit should follow the order provided in the Checklist of Upper Cumberland birds, available at this page of this website:
Checklist of Upper Cumberland Birds
You may also go to the following list of Yard Watch species and copy it; then paste it into an email message; then edit it (either put an "x" after the species you recorded or delete the species you did not record); then mail the message to me.
If you would like a supply of field cards listing the birds of the Upper Cumberland Region to use in keeping track of species in your yard each month, simply send me a request for some cards, along with your address, and I will mail some to you.
YardWatch results for each month of the year will be compiled and available at this website. In addition, a yearly summary will be provided in January of each year.
The main purpose of YardWatch is to provide data about the period of occurrence and the abundance of bird species occurring within the Upper Cumberland Region, mainly for the creation of bar graphs to be included in a book on the birds of the Region. A secondary purpose is to provide novice birders with information that will allow them to determine the likelihood of observing a particular species within their own yards and neighborhoods. If a species was very frequently registered during YardWatch, then it could be expected to occur in most yards and neighborhoods around the Region. Conversely, if a species was seldom or never registered during YardWatch, then it is much less likely to occur in most yards and neighborhoods around the Region.
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