Date: 8/10/26 6:54 pm From: Harry LeGrand (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Reminder: A call for Summer Reports for the Briefs for the Files
Fellow birders,
Now that the rather brief Summer Season is over (June-July), as *The Chat'*s Briefs for the Files editor, I would like to hear from *any of you who have not posted important records for the season already on eBird. * The great majority of the Briefs over the past decade have come from the editor perusing the eBird database, species by species, and picking out the most signficant reports. This is tedious (looking at over 400 Species Maps!), but I need to wait for a few more days to start so that any and all rarity sightings (as seen on the Carolina Bird Club Sightings page) have hopefully been approved as valid. But, *a few of you might have some important records that were not on eBird, so please let me know what notable birds you saw (or birds you expected but didn't).*
For the summer season, I also will be looking at the NC Bird Atlas breeding maps, though the data are probably now at least a year old. The 5-year Atlas surveys ran from 2021-2025, so this was the first summer since around 2020 that some to many of you were probably not in the field as much covering your atlas blocks. Nonetheless, I want to peruse these mostly 2021-2025 maps to have an idea of where species have been confirmed breeding, for example.
For the first half of the summer (June), nearly all of the Carolinas was mired in a year-long drought that stretched back to around mid-August 2025. This meant that there were often extensive mudflats at inland lakes that did not become flooded until heavy rains in July. Shorebird and wader reports were thus more frequent at inland locales than normal this season. The often excessive heat continued most of the summer, sadly. From my perspective here in Raleigh, I could not find (hear singing) ANY House Wrens at several places where I have heard them routinely for a few decades, such as in my Cameron Village neighborhood and at Raulston Arboretum. Was the scarcity of House Wrens noticed in your area where they normally breed? Are they retreating a bit back northward, or are Bluebirds (or other species) occupying nest boxes where they used to be nesting? Just curious!
I'd like to hear from folks by* August 25*, if possible. Again, *almost all of you submit eBird reports, so those data are already available to me on the website, and thus a big "Thank You" for posting results.*
Harry LeGrand, Brief for the Files editor (for *The Chat*) Raleigh
