This is the the first official tally of the 2016 Backyard Bird Race and the belated final tally of 2015! We’ll list the final tally of 2015 today, with the results of this, the first offical tally of 2016, to go up on Sunday, February 6. Welome to everyone who reported their first birds of the year on New Year’s Day, especially those who are just joining the race. Have fun, and good backyard birding to all in 2016!
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.
Tallies will go up on the first Sunday of each month, with a summer break in July and August.
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 we go! Congratulations to everyone who joined in during 2015.
I’m away this weekend, so won’t be around today. Be nice, OK?
1. not4morewars (new) ... central IA ... 7 (Category Bragging Rights and Personal Record)
1. Benny Toothpick (25) ... Hamilton, NY... 53 (Category Bragging Rights and Personal Record)
2. jforests (new) ... Berkeley CA ... 32 (Personal Record)
3. aaroninsandiego (21, 20) ... San Diego CA ... 22 (New personal record)
4. Daenerys (new) … Salt Lake City UT … 9 (Personal Record)
5. Meteor Blades (new) ... South of San Fransisco, CA ... 5 (Personal Record)
1. cany (new) ... Orange County CA ... 67 (Category Bragging Rights and Personal Record))
2. PHScott ... (32, 38, 48) ... west of Tallahassee ... 46
3. besame (new) … NW Sierras CA … 45 (Personal Record)
4. Attack Gardener (49) ... Saratoga County NY ... 44
5. birdfeeder (new) ... Shutesbury MA ... 40 (Personal Record)
6. jerseyblue (new) ... Howell NJ ... 36 (Personal Record)
7. most awesome nana (48, 57)... NE PA ... 12
1. burnt out (73, 75, 78) ... mid MO ... 97 (Category Bragging Rights and New Personal Record))
2. purple cones (new) … VA … 35 (Personal Record)
3. ninety wt (25) ... central MS ... 24
1. Economaniac (new) … Chicago IL … 91 (Category Bragging Rights and Personal Record)
2. bwren (50, 41, 55) ... Seattle WA ... 45
3. welso (new) ...Cleveland, OH … 34 (Personal Record)
3. gulfgal98 (new) ... NC ... 23 (Personal Record)
4. mission419 (new) ... Seattle WA ... 19 (Personal Record)
5. KenBee (new) ... SB CA ... 18 (Personal Record)
6. billybush (35, 19) ... Omaha NE ... 17
7. matching mole (new location)... Seattle WA ... 12 (Personal Record)
8. DemBeans (new) ... Kansas City MO ... 7 (Personal Record)
1. AZ Sphinxmoth (43, 73)... Baja, AZ ... 65 (Category Bragging Rights)
2. chantedor (46, 56) ... Paradise, CA ... 54
3. LICenter (new) ... Suffolk County, LI ... 51 (Personal Record)
5. (tie). enhydra lutris (40, 47, 40) ... Castro Valley NOCA ... 44
4 (tie). lorell (36, 47) ... Sugarland, TX ... 45
6. profewalt (76) ... South NJ ... 25
7. gulfgal98 (new) ... Tallahassee, FL ... 16 (Personal Record for this category)
8. 6412093 (20, 30) ... NW Oregon ... 15
9. Peregrine Kate (new) … SE MI … 14 (Personal Record)
10. barbwires (new) ...Alexandria VA ... 6 (Personal Record)
1. Polly Syllabic (100, 102, 83) ... Gooseville WI ... 96 (GRAND BRAGGING RIGHTS!)
2. Dr. Arcadia (78, 87) ... thumb of MI ... 88 (New Personal Record)
3. matching mole (78, 79, 76) ... Tallahassee FL ... 80 (New Personal Record)
4. OceanDiver (71, 72) ... Lopez IS WA ... 74 (New Personal Record)
5. Milly Watt (67, 75, 72) ... Olympic Peninsula WA ... 67
6. nom de plume (64) ... Upper Kitsap Peninsula WA ... 66 (New Personal Record)
7. Mark Sumner (69, 80) ... Hillsboro MO ... 34
8. political mutt (53, 65, 91) ... Sandhills NC ... 22
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, dated if you wish. Any comments you have about your sightings.
The First Official Tally of the 2016 Backyard Science Yardbird Race is now open.
"Green Diary Rescue" is posted every Saturday and Wednesday 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-dKos groups.
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 of the year. 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 Penguin 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.