About the BBS

Amherst Breeding Bird Survey: Brief History

The Amherst Breeding Bird Survey (ABBS) was initiated in 1990 by a committee that included the director of the Town of Amherst Conservation Commission, a doctoral ornithology student, and their colleagues who were active birders and members of the newly-formed Hampshire Bird Club.

The 100 sites on 15 routes were chosen to reflect diverse habitats of the area and diverse ownership patterns: protected conservation land, woodlots being logged, suburban home areas. Over time a few sites have changed slightly (the bridge washed out to an island, the beaver drowned the site, roads and trails moved slightly). In 2014 the longest route (18 sites) was split into 2 routes, so there are now 16 survey routes and a total of 99 sites.

That first year 10 observers conducted surveys on the 15 (now 16) survey routes. Over the 26 years, there have been 31 observers - only one 2015 observer started in 1990 (and he changed routes; no one has done the same route all 26 years). Many, however, have done the same route for 10 or more years. There has been a tradition of the retiring observer taking the new observer around the route. In recent years, there have also been aerial photographs and GPS points to help orient new observers.

Most of the protocols associated with the survey have been followed the entire time:

• Start time from 6-7 AM
• No surveys on windy or rainy days
• Surveys done between June 1 and June 17
• Observations can made by only one birder
• 2 trips per route, ideally doing the second trip in reverse order
• Return completed data to the Town Hall.

Most rules have been carefully observed. Occasionally an observer needed to begin the last days of May or end after the 17th, but that information is included in the data.

Observers were invited to enter species observed only between counts (marked with an "x" instead of a number), but these data were not always included by the observer or entered by the data entry person.

In 2015, part of the protocol was changed:

1. What had been information about starting and ending: time, temperature, wind and cloud cover for each route, would now be collected at each site.
2. What had been a 5-minute survey was divided into 3-minute and 2-minute periods with birds first detected in each period recorded separately.
3. What had been a list with no information about distance of the bird became a 50m-or-less and more-than-50m list based on where the bird was first detected.

The observers were very willing to try this new protocol and were trained in the month before the survey began. All data was entered and, while observers found it difficult at first, all followed the new protocol in 2016 and 2017.

And then there is the history of the data management.

For many years, packets with the cover letter, instructions, route descriptions, and data sheets were sent to all observers by the Conservation Department. When the paper surveys were complete, they were returned to Town Hall and filed in a large cardboard box.

Doug Hutcheson (then the new Conservation Land Manager, Amherst Conservation Department, now with MA DCR) decided that, if he was supposed to be using the data for management decisions, it needed to be computerized. Daniel Lass and Glen Caffrey, both faculty in Resource Economics, UMass, developed an excel file which was easy to use. Doug, Libby Lass, and other Conservation Department staff enter all the data.

In 2009, Doug moved to MA DCR and Harvey Allen and Mary Alice Wilson became the volunteer coordinators of the project. The Town continued to provide mailing services until all observers could be contacted by email. In 2012 the data-entry was moved back to the Conservation Commission, but actually went to the GIS Administrator, Michael Olkin. In the next 3 years, various data entry approaches were tried, but none were elegant. In preparation for the 2016 season, Michael Olkin developed a much easier data entry system and database. It worked well in both 2016 and 2017. In 2017, when Mike Warner replaced Michael Olkin in the Town of Amherst IT Department.

In 2009, Michael Akresh, then a master's degree student at UMass (now completing his Ph.D. at UMass) conducted the only data analysis that has been done. He has continued to serve on the Steering Committee and has been especially helpful in making sure that the protocol changes in 2015 would make future data analysis easier. Mike completed his Ph.D. at UMass in the fall 2017 and we hope he will stay in the area.

Other members of the informal Steering Committee are

• David Spector, Professor, Biology Department, Central Connecticut State University and one of the founders of the survey
• David King, Research Wildlife Biologist, USDA, Forest Service, and Department of Environmental Conservation, UMass/Amherst
• Stephanie Clymer, Research Assistant, Neighborhood Nestwatch and former data entry person for ABBS
• Michael Warner, GIS Administrator, Town of Amherst and host of the database
• Mary Alice Wilson when serving as the local volunteer coordinator

It is this committee that oversaw the changes in protocol.Membership will, of course, change with new individuals representing the town and the volunteers and with additional representatives from other organizations.

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