This is the the third tally of the 2016 Backyard Bird Race. The 4th tally will go up on Sunday, April 3.
The Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race is a birding competition where, over the course of one year, participants strive to identify the most bird species - by sight and/or by sound - from the confines of their yards.
March 2016 notes.
This group couldn’t function without our Official Tally Keepers, aaroninsandiego, matching mole, Milly Watt, and Ocean Diver. They do the hard work around here, taking turns every month to go through everone’s updated lists, noting all of the new sightings and making certain that everyone’s counts are transferred correctly onto the official tally spreadsheet.
We can make their job a bit easier. You’ll note that our lists tend to get longer to as the year progresses, so one thought is for everyone to note new birds at the top of your list each month, maybe even in bold.
A second thought is to start noting your new birds in taxinomic order, since the spreadsheet is set up in that manner. Daunting? Not if you have the USGS Birds of America checkist, which happens to be in exactly that order. You might also note the number given to each species in the very first column of the list, which is very helpful for the tally keepers. As examples, 004.2 is the number for Common Loon, and 449.3 is the number for American Crow, so you’d order them them as new birds at the top of your list as:
004.2 Common Loon
449.3 American Crow
Ask if you have questions, and let any of the tally keepers know if you’d like a copy of the official tally sheet. Thank you, and good birding to everyone!
The Third Official Tally of the 2016 Backyard Science Yardbird Race is now open.
Everyone is welcome - new birders, experienced birders, and anyone in between. We're a very supportive group and will help as much as we can. If you're not sure about an ID, just do your best to give us a good written description. Images, even mediocre ones, can be a great help, too. There are a number of categories, so that people who live in urban centers don't have to compete against others who have a lot of open space or waterfront views.
All of the race details and fine print can be found way down at the end of this very long missive.
The Categories:
- ~Small Town
- ~College Campus
- ~Urban apartment or condo
- ~Urban attached (townhouse, rowhouse)
- ~Urban detached
- ~Suburban
- ~Rural <5 acres
- ~Rural >5 acres
- ~Waterfront (trumps any of the above...)
- ~Classroom Project
Here’s where we stand after the February 7 tally. Please let me know if I’ve missed anyone or if anything needs correcting. The number in parentheses after each participant’s name refers to their personal record over the past years.
1. indubitably (new) ... Ozark footills ... 19
2. grapevines (new) … NW MN … 8
1. Benny Toothpick (53) ... Hamilton, NY... 17
2. aaroninsandiego (22) ... San Diego CA ... 13
1. besame (45) … NW Sierras CA … 27
2. PHScott ... (48) ... west of Tallahassee ... 22
3. Attack Gardener (49) ... Saratoga County NY ... 21
4. marleycat (new) … N Baltimore City MD … 19
5. wordwraith (new) … Central NC ...12
6. birdfeeder (40) ... Shutesbury MA ... 11
1. bwren (55) ... Seattle WA ... 19
2. billybush (35) ... Omaha NE ... 8
1. enhydra lutris (47) ... Castro Valley NOCA ... 28
2. hilltopper (new) … Oakland CA … 25
3. LICenter (51) ... Suffolk County, LI ... 21
4. OldJackPine (new) … S WI … 12
5. 6412093 (30) ... NW Oregon ... 10
1. matching mole (80) ... Tallahassee FL ... 41
2. Milly Watt (75) ... Olympic Peninsula WA ... 35
3. nom de plume (66) ... Upper Kitsap Peninsula WA ... 33
4. OceanDiver (74) ... Lopez IS WA ... 30
5. Dr. Arcadia (88) ... thumb of MI ... 24
Tally Updates. Here's what you need to report - Your location, as close as you are comfortable revealing. Your yard category. Number of species seen so far, including your other tallies if you have any. List of birds seen, with new birds at the top. Any comments you have about your sightings.
Details and fine print.
You'll be listing the number of bird species that you see from the confines of your yard between January 1 and December 31, 2016. You can list a bird if you see or hear it while you are somewhere in your yard. Your "yard" includes the property on which your domicile is located, and includes your living quarters, so you can list the Killdeer that wakes you at 2am, but you can't list the Smew you think you see in your neighbor's side yard while driving home if you cannot see it from any place in your yard after you get out of your car. You can, however, walk around to your neighbor's yard to visually ID a bird that you have initially glimpsed or heard from the confines of your own yard. Pet birds and birds kept for hunting don't count, but domestic chickens, ducks, peafowl, guinea hens, geese etc are fair game. With the exception of utilizing recorded bird calls, which is strongly discouraged, there are no rules about making your yard more bird-attractive than the competition's. There are also no rules about ladders and fences.
Once again, here are the yard categories:
- ~Small Town
- ~College Campus
- ~Urban apartment or condo
- ~Urban attached (townhouse, rowhouse)
- ~Urban detached
- ~Suburban
- ~Rural <5 acres
- ~Rural >5 acres
- ~Waterfront (trumps any of the above...)
- ~Classroom Project
Please let us know if your back yard doesn't seem to fit in any of these categories. We'll work out a new one for you.
Meteor Blade’s Spotlight on Green News is posted every Saturday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. The Spotlight has been very good to Backyard Science over the years, so take a minute to recommend, comment, and then link to your other off-dKos groups.