In September, WSO announced that it was making the 5th Edition of Wisconsin’s Favorite Bird Haunts available to members on our members-only website at https://wso.wildapricot.org/haunts. We did so with the knowledge that Haunts was last updated in 2009. Over the last 11 years a lot has changed in terms of bird population distribution, relevance of birding sites and accessibility of some of the spots featured in the book.
WSO is now ready to take the next step: Creating for our members a 6th edition of the statewide birding guide in an all-electronic format.
Field Trips Co-chair Jeff Baughman and Vice President Sunil Gopalan are currently migrating the content of the book from a static PDF to a more modern format powered by Google Maps. This will allow the reader to more easily digest information about each of the more than 1,100 locations and navigate to them with their smartphone or navigation system.
This involves a significant amount of work, but we are targeting to finish the update by the end of this year, at which time it will be made available to our members. The new format also will allow WSO to update each chapter independently.
To speed that process, WSO is seeking to hire an editor to coordinate a major update of the guide by the end of 2021.
Wisconsin benefits from a having many knowledgeable birders with current information about even the most remote locations in the book. Many of them were the contributors who wrote the current site descriptions; many other young birders have emerged in the last decade and helped complete the massive field effort for the 2nd Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas. WSO is seeking an individual who can work with all of those individuals as well as birding clubs and Audubon chapters across the state to gradually make the information in Haunts the most useful and relevant it can be.
This will be a paid independent contractor position with compensation ranging between $20-$30 per hour.
Some of the editor’s responsibilities:
-- Familiarizing themselves with all the locations in Haunts
-- Reaching out to existing authors and cultivating new regional contacts across the state
-- Updating every chapter for accuracy and relevance
-- Updating embedded Google maps to better direct readers to roads/parking lots with current directions to trail/off trail areas
-- Adding eBird hotspot information to the maps – including working with the Wisconsin eBird team to evaluate locations for hotspots where they don't exist
Some of the skills we are looking for:
-- Writing and editing skills
-- Excellent organizational skills to keep track of all the contributors and content
-- A background in birding around Wisconsin and contacts among birders across the state who can contribute information
-- A commitment to be able to invest around 300 hours in the project over the next year
If this sounds like you or someone you know, please reach out Sunil Gopalan at vicepresident@wsobirds.org by Dec. 1, 2020.
-- This is one of several timely articles in this month's Badger Birder newsletter; don't miss out on the latest birding and conservation news. Become a WSO member today! --
