About Birch Compass

What's happening in nature where you live — a free, state-by-month reference to the birds, blooms, gardens, night sky, and seasons around you.

We compile what's scattered across public data — bird surveys, bloom calendars, planting dates, astronomical tables, and climate normals — into one clear, state-specific seasonal reference. The free pages give you a genuinely useful monthly overview; the downloadable guides go deep.

How it's made & reviewed

Each page is built from published public datasets (listed below), then checked against a set of automated content rules and reviewed before it goes live. We separate what is measured from what is modeled or typical: survey records and climate normals are measured; migration timing and arrival months are modeled and labelled as such. Nature timing varies year to year and place to place, so we describe typical patterns and point you to local resources — your state Native Plant Society, Cooperative Extension, or Audubon chapter — to confirm before you plan around them. Full detail is on our methodology page.

The one thing here that is not data

Everything on this site that identifies a plant, a bird or a night comes from the datasets below and is cited where it appears. The single exception is the free set of four seasonal prints on our printables page: those are original artwork, made with an AI image model and finished by hand. They are illustrations rather than photographs, they are not a record of any real place, and nothing on them names or depicts an identifiable species. No generated image is used anywhere a reader could mistake it for a field photograph or an identification aid.

Our sources

• USGS Breeding Bird Survey — which birds occur in each state, and how consistently they are recorded
• NPS NPSpecies checklists — park-level species presence used as a cross-check
• USDA PLANTS Database — native status and distribution for every plant named
• GBIF occurrence records — whether a plant is actually recorded growing in a given state
• USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map — the zone ranges behind planting advice and plant matching
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — native-plant horticulture: sun, soil, bloom period, wildlife value
• The Xerces Society — pollinator and butterfly host-plant relationships
• USA National Phenology Network — typical timing of leaf-out, bloom, and seasonal events
• NOAA/NCEI U.S. Climate Normals (1991–2020) — statewide temperature and precipitation normals
• Cooperative Extension (land-grant directory) — regional planting dates and frost guidance
• State fish & wildlife agencies — state-specific wildlife status and viewing guidance
• International Meteor Organization — the annual meteor-shower peaks and typical rates behind every sky page

Questions or a correction? Email us. We update the whole reference each January.