Welcome to the 2012 Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race! This is the sixth tally diary (a week late), where you can post your sightings, compare notes and/or brag some. Please let me know I've missed you. Honest, it wasn't intentional.
Here's what need to know:
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 yard. More details and some fine print can be found at the end of this post.
Myboo joined the race last month, proving that it's never too late to start! We now have 20 racers competing in six categories, with one category still empty. Apartment/Condo dwellers, chime in please!
Here's where the race stood as of May 5:
Once again, we'll start in the SUBURBAN category, where jim in IA and enhydra lutris are just one species apart. It's 32 to 33 as we go into the heat of summer. Right-hand Iowa and left-hand California- which birds go into hiding first?
burnt out continues to lead in the RURAL <5 ACRES category with a commanding 58 species. Still, there's a good race going on for second place between janislav and myboo. janislav in east central Iowa is still in the lead for the silver, with 29 species, but myboo in west central Washington just jumped in with 24, most of which were observed over the course of one day. Looks as if we have another midwest/west coast race here.
On to WATERFRONT, where it appears that there are two races going on - one for the gold and a second for the bronze. pollysyllabic and matching mole continue to thumb their noses at one another at every opportunity. polly has taken the lead with a whopping 70 species, and while matching mole was away for a good part of the last month, he was still was able to accumulate 62. We'll see if he tries to sneak in some of those fancy birds he saw in his travels down in Ecuador.
Now comes the sleeper race, WATERFRONT bronze. It's millywatt on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and political mutt down near the North Carolina coast. 41 to 40 species. What now, as the nesting season draws to an end?
I'm still the only competitor in the URBAN DETACHED category, adding 7 birds during the last heat for a total of 44. Come on, someone challenge me! I'm getting lazy.
PHScott is being a troublemaker. He started this year's race in Florida as the only competitor in the RURAL >5 ACRES category. Now he's moved north to New York State. Does he get to add to his list or should he start all over again? Is he still collecting data from a RURAL >5 ACRES plot? If so, he may be the only racer ever to compete against himself. PHScott in Florida has 30 species. What might PHScott in NYState report this time?
Tally #6 is now open.
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.
Details about the Yardbird Race and a bit of fine print can be found over the orange bird poop below.
Details and the fine print.
You can list a bird if you see or hear it while you are somewhere in your yard. A "yard" includes your living quarters. So, you can list the Killdeer that wakes you at 2am, but you can't list the Herring Gull 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 visually ID a bird that you have 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 "parrot". Pet birds, other captive birds and birds kept for hunting don't count.
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.
Here are the yard categories.
~Urban apartment or condo
~Urban attached (townhouse, rowhouse)
~Urban detached
~Suburban
~Rural <5 acres
~Rural >5 acres
~Waterfront (trumps any of the above...)
You're on the honor system here, though I suspect we'll figure it out if you list Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Carolina Wrens while claiming to live somewhere west of the Texas/New Mexico border.
All are welcome, even if you're new to backyard birding. We'll even help you with IDs. Good racing everyone!
The seventh tally will go up on July 15.