Welcome to the 2014 Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race! This is the 8th tally for 2014 and is the official place to post your sightings, ask for help, and brag some if you wish. All of the fine print can be found way below under the pile of squiggly orange bird poop.
Here's what the race is all about:
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.
There are a number of categories, so people who live in urban centers don't have to compete against others who have a lot of open space or waterfront views. Please let us know if you'd like to participate but find yourself not fitting into an established category - we'll work out one for you!
The Categories:
~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
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Again, please thank our official tally keepers, Milly Watt, Ocean Diver and Matching Mole, who have done an incredible job organizing the Official Spreadsheet and getting everyone's numbers logged in each month.
Here are the numbers from the last tally in early October. This tally will be the next to last one of 2014, with the Final Grand Bragging Rights Tally of 2014 appearing on New Years' Day, 2015.
URBAN ATTACHED
1. lineatus (44) ... San Francisco, CA ... 20
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APARTMENT OR CONDO
1. Benny Toothpick (27)... Carrboro, NC ... 29
2. aaroninsandiego (21)... San Diego CA ... 20
3. Benny Toothpick (27)... Hamilton, NY... 18
4. Lenny Flank (new) ... St Pete, FL ... 12
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RURAL <5ACRES
1. most awesome nana (48)... NE PA ... 51 (New personal record!)
2. Attack Gardener (new) ... Saratoga County NY ... 49
3. PHScott ... (32, 38) ... west of Tallahassee ... 48
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RURAL >5ACRES
1. burnt out (73, 75)... middle MO ... 49
2. weezlegirl (new) ... OK ... 34
3. ninety wt (new) ... central MS ... 25
4. Joieau (new) ... W. North Carolina ... 18
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URBAN DETACHED
1. bwren (50, 41)... Seattle WA ... 46
2. greycat (new)... Portland, OR ... 30
3. billybush (35)... Omaha NE ... 17
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SUBURBAN
1. profewalt (new) ... South NJ ... 76
2. AZ Sphinxmoth (43)... Baja, AZ ... 73
3. chantedor (46) ... Paradise, CA ... 49
4. lorell (36) ... Sugarland, TX ... 46
5. enhydra lutris (40, 47) ... Castro Valley NOCA ... 38
6. DarkHawk98 (new)... Bella Vista AR ... 33
7. 6412093 (20)... NW Oregon ... 28
8. barbwires (24) ... Alexandria VA ... 13
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WATERFRONT
1. political mutt (53, 65) ... Sandhills NC ... 84
2 (tie.). Polly Syllabic (100, 102) ... Gooseville WI ... 83
2 (tie). Dr. Arcadia (78) ... thumb of MI ... 83
3. Mark Sumner (69) ... Hillsboro, MO ... 80
4. matching mole (78, 79) ... Tallahassee FL ... 69
5. Milly Watt (67, 75) ... Olympic Peninsula WA ... 68
6. OceanDiver (71) ... Lopez IS WA ... 66
7. nom de plume (new) ... Upper Kitsap Peninsula WA ... 61
8. wood gas (new) ... Prince of Wales IS AK ... 39
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Here's some more fun with a map or two.
Junk Birds. Sputskies. LBBs. What do you call the House Sparrows and House Finches that seem to be ubiquitous everywhere you go? Whatever name you call them, it turns out that at least for the participants, neither appears to be universal.
There's some overlap between the two, especially in the PNW, SOCA, Missouri, SE Texas, and the Eastern Seaboard. Granted, our data set is quite small, but of note is that House Sparrows didn't show up in the Bay Area on our counts, though they were recorded in Florida; and that the reverse was true with respect to House Finches. No House Finches were recorded in Florida this year, yet they were seen in the Bay Area.
Other musings?
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If you haven't done so, check out the new Backyard Bird Racers Group. Everyone who's reported at least one tally this year has been invited, and almost everyone has accepted. Check your Kosmail!
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Tally Updates
Be kind to your record keeper. For ease of keeping track of everyone's lists, please post your tallies in the following manner:
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, dated if you wish.
Any comments you have about your sightings.
The 8th tally of the 2014 Backyard Science Yardbird Race is now open! You all know what to do. I'll be here most of the day, though probably not before 9AM PDT.
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"Green Diary Rescue" is posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Green Diary Rescue has been good to Backyard Science, so take a minute to recommend, comment, and then link to your other off-Kos groups.
Details and the fine print.
You'll be listing the number of bird species that you find from the confines of your yard between January 1 and December 31, 2014. You can list a bird if you see or hear it while you are somewhere in your yard. If you live in an apartment or condo building your "yard" includes the property on which the building is located. Note that a "yard" includes your living quarters. So, you can list the owl that wakes you at 2am, but you can't list the Flamingo 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 side yard to ID a bird that you have initially seen or heard from the confines of your own yard.
You may list domestic chickens, but only as the generic "domestic chicken". Feral parrots and budgies may also be listed, but only as the generic "feral parrot". Pet birds, other captive birds and birds kept for hunting don't count, but wandering peafowl are fair game.
There are no rules about ladders and fences. With the exception of utilizing recorded bird calls, which is strongly discouraged, there are also no rules about making your yard more bird-attractive than the competition's.
Once again, here are the yard categories:
~College Campus NEW!
~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