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The last fortnight saw 15 cards submitted that contributed to the Cards-to-Green effort in KZN.
The bulk were in Southern KZN, with five from around Melmoth and a single one from the Newcastle area.
2729 benefited from a single submission, which means that only 10 more are needed and then all the pentads on the KZN side have at least four cards.
2831 benefited from 5 cards, bringing it's total needed down to 124. At the beginning of 2012 254 cards were needed, and at the beginning of 2013, 163.
3029 was the sole beneficiary of the 9 remaining CTG cards.
2830 is still in need of the most effort, with 318 cards needed. 2830 has three pentads with no cover and 72 with only one card.
I think that this is the first time in ages that we only have three contributor's on the CTG Merit Table.
Tim Wood and his team head the table with their great contribution of 9 cards. Of these 9, seven were the second card for their respective pentads.
John and Kim Cox are second on the table with their five cards, this time from the Melmoth area.
Last, but certainly not least, Johan de Villiers contributed a card from the Mpumalanga border.
On the general KZN front we had 57 cards submitted for KZN, down from last fortnight's 84. This represents a drop from 6.0/day to 4.1/day. We seem to average around 4/day in winter.
The records/card number also dropped from 53.7 to 43.3, so it would seem that winter is finally setting in, as this number was also in the low 40's in the fortnight prior to the last.
Thanks to all who have contributed to SABAP2.
This last fortnight again saw 14 cards submitted that contributed to the CTG effort in KZN. Last fortnight had 27 cards, but the one before also had 14 cards, or exactly one CTG card/day.
This time the spread is from around Vryheid, inland from the North Coast and some north of the Durban-PMB axis.
2831 saw the largest gain with 4 cards followed by 2730 with 3 and 2930 with 2.
2830 gained a single card so now needs 318.
2931 inched a little closer to completion with another card submitted as well, so now 15 needed there.
The credits table continues to show variation, other than John and Kim Cox and Tim Wood, who featured again.
All six observers have featured on this table before, but the line up, sorted by most cards and alphabetically is:
Duncan McKenzie with 4
John and Kim Cox also with 4
Alan Manson with 2
Tim Wood with 2
Dave Everard and Malcolm Robinson each with 1.
Thanks to these observers who have managed to target their atlasing to contribute to the CTG effort.
On the general SABAP2-KZN front we had one card less than last fortnight, so 84 in total, or 6.0/day. This means that the CTG:Total percentage dropped from 32% to 17% percent, which is still a tidy effort.
In terms of records/card we have sprung back up to 53.7 records/card from last period's 45.6, so back where we were pre-winter.
Thanks to all observers who have contributed to SABAP2.
The last fortnight saw 27 CTG cards submitted. This equates to a rate of 1.9/day, a rate last achieved in January when we had 2.0/day over a period of four weeks.
Most movement was in the south, around Harding and Kokstad, with the rest on the strip in from the North Coast.
Degree square 3029 had 11 cards submitted, 10 of which were the second cards for their pentads. The second biggest degree square contribution was for 2831, where seven cards were submitted. 3030 came in third with 4 cards, again with 3 being second cards.
2830 remains our biggest challenge with 319 cards needed, and three empty pentads. Second neediest are 2731 and 2732, both needing 183 each, but 2732 has seven empty pentads.
On the upside 2832 only needs six cards to be completely "green" while 2931 needs 16 cards.
In this period we again have some fresh faces, with Johan deVilliers, Kelly Gate and Ronald Searle each contributing a card, while Ewert Hauptfleisch, who has been featuring quite regularly, also contributing a card.
Honours this fortnight certainly go to Tim Wood and his team, who contributed 16 cards. All but one of these were for Southern KZN, which has in dire need of deeper coverage.
John and Kim Cox managed a really good seven cards, continuing their methodical coverage of the area within reach of Richard's Bay.
On the general SABAP2-KZN front, we had 85 cards submitted for this fortnight. This equates to 6.1 cards/day, while slightly down on our average of 7.9/day, it is still better than we usually get at this time of year. What is really great about these 85 cards though, is that 32% of them were well targeted at "CTG" pentads.
The number of records has finally dipped to 45.6 records/card, down from the 52.5 that we had maintained since the middle of March. So winter is finally biting.
These pentad charts are a useful tool for planning atlas trips, especially as we start to add cards to pentads, these allow one to see the seasonality of submissions and so fill gaps in that way.
These maps are either available in xls format [click on the link on the right] or if you email me I can send you a pdf of the area that you are looking for. The pdf maps are only about 30KB as opposed to the 1.1MB of the xls files.
This fortnight saw the most submissions per day for Cards-to-Green in KZN since the middle of February.
We have had 14 cards submitted, two of which were for empty pentads, while another 4 were for pentads with only one card. There was also a good mix of observers, some having submitted for the first time in some years.
As we have come to expect, there was some good movement in the north, with three cards in 2732, and another in 2632.
The west also saw movement with cards in 2829, 2830 and 2929.
One card for 2930 saw this degree square continuing it's slow march to CTG closure, with only 43 cards needed now.
There was also some movement in the south with 3028, 3030 and 3130 receiving 4 cards in total and the two empty pentad cards.
The issue of which pentads are allocated to which province remains problematical as it is quite difficult to allocate these. According to my calculations we should have had 2 empties receiving cards, while according to the SABAP2 website, one of these was allocated to the Eastern Cape. In any event we have achieved better coverage for the whole of SABAP2.
The credits table also shows some good news with two observers who last submitted some years ago making a return. Welcome back Malcolm Rivett and Paul Bartho.
In fact, Malcolm leads the table this fortnight with 3 cards, followed by John and Kim Cox, Tim Wood and Trish Strachan all with 2 cards.
Alan Manson, Andy Branfield, Ewert Hauptfleisch, Lia Steen and Paul Bartho all contributed a card.
Thanks to all of these observers, these contributions are especially valued.
Looking at the overall KZN front, we have good movement in most areas. Not only has the the number of empty pentads decreased slightly, but we have had cards submitted for four pentads that only had one card. We also have 5 pentads added to those with seven or more cards, this is 28.3% of KZN's area. This keeps us quite competitive with Mpumalanga who are on 29.2% and the Western Cape on 28.5%. Both of these provinces had been drawing away from us.
In terms of daily submissions of cards we have moved right back up to 9.3 cards/day in the last fortnight, which is well above our average of 7.6. To give some background, the project figure is 56.1 cards/day for the last fortnight, made up by 12.6 from the Western Cape, 9.3 from KZN, 6.5 from Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and 5.4 each from Mpumalanga and Limpopo. As such we compare quite well with the other provinces.
As in the last fortnight, our records/card figure has not dropped significantly either, we managed 52.5 records/card against 53.9 and 54.1 for the last two periods. The trend is definitely downward as expected as we go into winter, this is slower than usual though.
This last fortnight saw 27 cards submitted which contributed to the Cards-to-Green effort in KZN. This is nearly twice the number submitted for the previous fortnight. The daily average was 1.9 cards / day. The last time that we reached these heights was in January when we had four weeks of 2.0 / day.
These 27 cards included 15 second cards.
Well done KZN, especially for this time of year.
The most movement was in southern KZN, where a good number of pentads with a single card got their much needed second card. The next area of movement was in the inner coastal strip in Northen KZN.
The 3029 degree square benefited the most in this fortnight, gaining 11 cards, 10 of which were second cards.
The next biggest beneficiary was 2831 which got 7 cards, followed by 3030 with four.
We now need 1 540 cards for all of KZN to have four cards for every pentad.
The degree square needing the most coverage is still 2830, with 319 cards needed. This degree square still has three pentads with no data, 73 with only one card and 39 pentads with only 2.
Degree squares 2731 and 2732 both need 183 cards, with 2732 having seven pentads with no cover.
On the positive side 2832 now only needs 6 cards and 2931 sixteen.
Looking at who has contributed, again we have some new names on the merit list, with Johan de Villiers, Kelly Gate and Ronald Searle each contributing a single card. Ewert Hauptfleisch who has been on and off these lists for the last few periods, again managed to contribute a card as well.
The big honours this time go to Tim Wood and his team who contributed a whopping 16 cards, with all of them, barring one in 2930BA, in southern KZN.
John & Kim Cox continued their sterling and methodical work in Zululand with 7 cards.
Thanks to these observers for their great contributions.
Looking at the overall SABAP2 contributions for KZN, we had 85 cards submitted in the last fortnight, which at 6.1 cards / day is not our lowest daily rate, but was below our average of 7.9 cards/day. Really great to see that nearly a third of these were focused on the CTG effort.
Unfortunately we experienced our first real major dip in records per card in this period, dropping from 52.5 records/card last fortnight to 45.6 in this one. Winter appears to be setting in.
As is often the case in mid-autumn, contributions to the atlas project have a tendency to slow, and this last fortnight was no different.
We had 6 submissions which contributed to the KZN Cards-to-Green project, with most movement in the south for change.
As can be seen from the table, there was one submission each in 2730, 2830 and 2930, while 3030 benefited from 3 cards.
This leaves 2830 as the degree square still n need of the most cards, at 322 and three pentads with no data and 73 pentads with only one card.
The next two degree squares needing the most cards are 2732 needing 187 and 2731, which needs 184 cards. 2732 also has the single biggest block of empty pentads, with seven located in the north-eastern part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
Tim Wood takes the honours this fortnight with 4 of the six cards, viz. the three 3030 cards as well as the one in 2930.
John Burchmore contributed the card in 2730 and Alan Taylor the one in 2830.
On the overall KZN front we had 4.2 cards submitted per day. The last time that we dipped to this level was in September to October 2012, when we experienced three successive fortnight's of 4.3, 4.9 and 3.6. At least the last two fortnight's just passed have had rates of 7.1 and 7.2 cards submitted / day.
Our records / card level is surprisingly holding up at 53.9, the last two fortnights have been 53.5 and 54.1. So while the card number have dropped, the records/card have not.
The latest KZN CTG map shows change across the whole province, again with the most movement in the south-western Zululand region.
Apologies for the gap in blog entries, but with the suspension and then change in the SABAP2 website's Gap Analysis, I have not been able to produce the tables below. I have now changed my spreadsheet to read from the CSV [data file] that this map is produced from, so hopefully no more interruptions for some time.
22 cards were submitted in the 42 days of this period with degree square 2831 benefiting the most with 9 cards, 4 of which were the second card for their pentad.
2829 and 2830 were next best with 3 cards each, while 2731 and 2832 each gained two; while 2929, 2931, 3030 all gained a single card.
2830 remains the degree square with the most need of coverage, with 323 cards needed to turn the coverage map green.
2832 now requires only 6 cards, while 2828 needs 4 to turn the KZN part green - these would all be for one pentad. (The bulk of 2828 falls in the Free State and is quite well covered, but about a third is in Lesotho and is in dire need of more cards - the bulk of these, like the remaining KZN pentad, has no coverage).
The credit table for the CTG effort features some new names (in contribution and then alphabetical order):
David Maphisa with 2 (both for what was a blank pentad);
Alan Taylor, Crystelle Wilson, Ewert Hauptfleisch and Michael Lee all with 1.
Amongst our usual suspects, John and Kim Cox contributed a massive 13 cards in the SW Zululand, while Alan Manson and Tim Wood contributed 2 each.
Looking at the overall SABAP2 stats in KZN over the last 42 days since the last report, we have had 299 cards submitted, at a daily average of 7.1, while this is slightly below the overall average of 7.6 / day for KZN, it is better than normal for autumn, when we have dropped as low as 4.1 cards/day.
The number of records/card is also being maintained at a healthy 53.6/card, which is also above normal for this time of year.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this, and to SABAP2 in general.
This last fortnight saw 5 cards submitted that contributed to CTG in KZN.
While this is a relatively low figure, our lowest since I have been keeping records in March 2011 is zero. The last time that we dipped to five though, was the fortnight ending 4-03-2012. It would seem that we have definite "heat of summer" dip towards the end of February.
In light of the ADU's new distribution maps CTG is now even more important. The new maps on the SABAP2 website show a species presence in yellow if there are less than 4 cards for that pentad, or if there is only ad hoc or incidental record data. In a sense then, data with less than three cards is equated with these latter data types, i.e. the species reporting rates really only become meaningful with 4+ cards. This should really spur us on to pull as many pentads as possible up to the four card mark.
When looking at the distribution of submissions, 4 cards were submitted for 2831 and one for 2731.
2830 remains our degree square in most need of coverage with 326 cards needed.
2732 needs 187 while 2731 now needs 186 cards.
John and Kim Cox again topped the CTG contribution table with 4 cards, while we can add Klaus Achtzehn to our list of contributors, with a single card in 2731.
For KZN overall we had 68 cards submitted in the last fortnight, which is a rate of 4.9 cards/day. This is distinctly lower than our average of 7.6 cards/day. We are maintaining a relatively high number of records per card of 59.0 against our overall average of 55.3.
During the last fortnight we had 15 cards submitted that contributed to the "Cards-to-Green" project in KZN.
This equates to an average of 1.1/day, which is slightly below our overall average of 1.4/day.
The bulk of the cards were submitted by Tim Wood, during an effort to add depth to the area east of Paulpietersburg, with 2730 getting 6 cards and 2731 two cards.
John and Kim Cox continued their systematic coverage of their area with 2830 getting 5 cards and 2831 a single one.
Malcolm Robinson contributed a single card in 2930 which picked off the single island west of PMB, which was standing out like a sore thumb.
2830 remains our degree grid cell with the poorest coverage, with 326 cards needed. A card for virtually any pentad in 2830 will contribute to CTG.
The next poorest cover is in 2731 and 2732, both needing 187 card s each.
Looking at our table of contributors, Tim Wood topped the submission this fortnight with 8, while John and Kim Cox submitted 6 and Malcolm Robinson 1.
For our overall KZN figures over the last fortnight we had 73 cards submitted at a rate of 5.2 cards/day, below our overall average of 7.6/day. The records/card remained high with 59.8 against our average of 55.3.
Thanks to all who are contributing to SABAP2 in KZN.
The last 4 weeks saw 45 cards submitted that contributed to the Cards-to-Green effort in KZN.
The bulk of these were in the Vryheid and Amatikulu areas, but there has also been a steady chipping away throughout the rest of the province.
This represents an average of 1.6 cards/day, this is still 0.2 above our overall average.
The biggest movers on this table were 2730 and 2831 each with 9 cards, and 2731 with 6.
3030 got a surprising 5 cards thanks to Tim Wood's efforts on the South Coast. This area has been a concern since Barry Porter's passing away, as he used to cover this area quite well.
As stated above, there was also a steady chipping away thoughout the province.
I must point out that although this table reflects 44 cards, but there were actually 45 submitted. There was an old card incorrectly allocated to 2929DC, for pentad 2955_2930. This pentad has been reduced to a single card now.
We have a change in the leaderboard for this period, with Duncan McKenzie managing 3 more than John and Kim Cox's 12, for this period.
The full list per observers as follows:
15 Duncan McKenzie [mostly Vryheid area]
12 John and Kim Cox [just inland along the coastal plain from Mandini to Imfolozi GR]
7 Tim Wood [S Coast inland]
4 Alan Manson [Tugela Valley and Donnybrook]
2 Lawrie Chivers [Dundee area]
1 Felicity Ellmore [Weenen area]
1 Jason Boyce [Mkuzi area]
1 Malcolm Robinson [the troublesome pentad at Henley Dam outside PMB]
1 Shaun Chamberlain [Newcastle area]
1 Mr M Taioe [Matatiele area]
Generally for SABAP2 in KZN over the last 4 weeks we managed 7.32 cards per day at an average of 58.4 records per cards. Both of these numbers are still well above our provincial average, but with a distinct tail-off in records per card, from 70.5 in the last period.
With our visitors having left us, we have also dropped to our usual third place in the daily cards submitted table, with Gauteng edging back above us to 7.54 cards/day in second, and the Western Cape back to first on 9.96 cards/day.
Thanks to all contributors to SABAP2, especially in KZN.
The KZN CTG map has seen some movement since the last map was published on 5-Dec, mostly with the colour change of the 5 red pentads in the Magudu area and the two red pentads in the Utrecht area. This was the result of the Atlas Bash from 6-9 Dec, based in this area courtesy of Malcolm Robinson. Tim Wood and Bob McCosh did the two Utrecht pentads on the way home.
There was also some steady chipping through most of the rest of KZN, particularly in the Melmoth-Ulundi area, but also with some contributions throughout KZN.
56 cards were submitted in the period that contributed to the KZN CTG mini-project, i.e. 2 CTG cards / day in the last two fortnights.
The biggest gain was in the 2731 degree square, with 23 cards courtesy of the Magudu Atlas Bash.
Next was 2831 with 12;
2730 had 7 cards;
while 2732, 2830 and 2930 had 3 each;
the rest were 1's and 2's in various degree squares.
2830 remains the neediest degree square with 335 cards needed to turn green;
followed by 2731 with 195 cards.
Attributing CTG cards to observers, once again we have John and Kim Cox at the top of the table, but at least we have a number of other observers in hot pursuit:
15 John and Kim Cox -mostly around Melmoth-Ulundi
12 Malcolm Robinson -Magudu but also some around Umvoti
11 Tim Wood -Magudu but also the 2 blanks near Utrecht
8 Colin Summersgill -Magudu, Middlerest and Underberg
5 Duncan McKenzie -Vryheid area
1 Alan Manson -Kranskop
1 Dave Everard -Van Reenen
1 Drummond Densham -Nsikeni
1 Lawrie Chivers -Dundee
1 Mr M Saunders -Harding
On the general submissions front we have been enjoying a bit of a purple patch with 8.5 cards submitted per day over the last 28 days. The previous highest for this stat was for the fortnight ending 4 Jan 2012, where we averaged 9.4 cards / day.
This high rate of submissions has not been at the cost of any quality, these cards have averaged 70.5 records per card. This is the highest records / card that I have recorded, since I have been keeping these stats on a fortnightly basis in Oct 2008. The closest that we have come to this was in Nov 2010 with an average of 70.1.
From a project perspective we are also doing well, this 8.54 cards/day is the highest for any region over this period. Next closest was Gauteng with 6.79 followed by the Western Cape with 6.54.
On a rolling average basis, the W Cape is doing the best with 9.11 cards/day; followed by Gauteng with 6.27; while KZN is averaging 5.99.
Thanks to all who are contributing to SABAP2.
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