The Cape Bird Club

SABAP2 update November 2009.

A big round of applause to all Atlasers in the Western Cape who contributed to the achievement of 50% coverage of the 1836 pentads in the Western Cape.

Today, 927 of the 1836 pentads have at least one full protocol check list. Of these, 575 pentads ( well over half ) have a second check list, and 212 pentads have seven or more checklists. This means that one in eleven pentads in the province will be shaded dark green (or darker) on the coverage map.

A remarkable achievement is that a total of 5540 full protocol cards have been submitted to date, some 1500 more cards than any other province in South Africa. A further statistic that needs acknowledgement is that this has happened in twenty nine months, giving an average of 191 full protocol cards per month.
This is an enormous effort by a remarkable breed of citizen scientists in the Western Cape. To all of you, keep up this amazing work. I believe it exemplifies our concern for conservation of birds, and underscores what SABAP2 wants to achieve.

I look forward to celebrating the achievement of the coverage 1000 pentads with you all in the not too distant future.

Yours in birding,

Peter Nupen.
Western Cape Atlas Coordinator

p.s.
To keep up to date with ongoing achievements throughout South Africa, please go to the SABAP2 website, and examine the "Provincial Summaries" updates.