Rio Brazos Master Naturalist Stories and Links

Links - Interesting sites and resource material

Great Backyard Bird Count - http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ - The next Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) takes place Friday, February 12 through Monday, February 15, 2010. The National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are calling on everyone to “Count for Fun, Count for the Future!” During last year’s count, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded. We hope you’ll join us again and help spread the word, since the success of the count depends on people tallying birds from as many locations as possible across the continent.

The Trails of Denton County - http://sites.google.com/site/trailsofdentoncounty/Home. "The Trails of Denton County" an Elm Fork Chapter - Texas Master Naturalist project. The objective of the project is to develop and publish interactive trail maps and dynamic trail guides for an estimated 70 plus Denton County parks, nature preserves and unique walking and hiking trails making the information available at no cost to the public via the Internet. These interactive trail maps/ guides can be accessed by anyone with Internet access anywhere in the world! The online trail maps and Google Earth guided tours can be downloaded to any PC, Macintosh, and most Smart Phones.

Atrium-Biodiversity Information System - www.atrium-biodiversity.org. Atrium is a technology platform for revolutionizing biodiversity information management by enabling researchers and organizations to share, synthesize, manage and publish biodiversity data in a collaborative, online environment. Atrium provides a broad range of tools for research organizations as well as an unparalleled, open-source framework based on industry standards which facilitates the development of powerful applications and tools for the biodiversity community.

NatureServe provides authoritative conservation information in a searchable database for more than 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the United States and Canada.

Nature.com – This new nature portal offers online searchable field guides to over 4,800 plant and animal species.

Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter - photographs, songs, videos, identification tips, maps, and life history information for North American birds. Looking for a great bird ID web site to share with callers or e-mailers? Try this one on the USGS site.