This is the the second tally of the 2018 Backyard Bird Race. The third tally will go up on Sunday, March 11
(that’s the first day of Daylight Savings Time — “spring forward”, so we’ll understand if you aren’t too bright ‘n early)
We’re off once again, with old timers as well as new participants. We’re just getting started after a year’s hiatus, so we have some categories empty so far. We’ll see if we can muster up some participants for them this time.
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.
|
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.
The Categories:
(with current numbers so far after our kickoff last month….matching mole is out in front, with LIcenter and enhydra lutris hot on mm’s tail, others just checking in so far)
- ~Small Town
- ~College Campus
- ~Urban apartment or condo
- ~Urban attached (townhouse, rowhouse)
- ~Urban detached
- ~Suburban (LIcenter with 14, enhydra lutris 12, Mel in PGH with 1)
- ~Rural <5 acres
- ~Rural >5 acres. (OptimizerDad with 6, North Country NY with 5)
- ~Waterfront (matching mole 20, OceanDiver & Milly Watt tied at 1)
- ~ Classroom Project
(Several folks named just the first bird they saw, so the competition is still wide open. 2018 Tally #1 kickoff by matching mole: www.dailykos.com/...)
|
For Tally Updates. Here's what you need to report in the comments.
1. Your location, as close as you are comfortable revealing.
2. Your yard category form the list above.
3. A list of birds you see in your yard as of today, February 11, 2018 with any comments about your sightings.
A Couple of Notes About Submitting Your Data
This group couldn’t function without our Official Tally Keepers (and we could always use more volunteers). 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 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 taxonomic order, since the spreadsheet is set up in that manner. There are several websites that will give you a list of North American birds in taxonomic order. As this is basically the same order as a field guide so you should pick it up quickly. The American Birding Association has downloadable excel checklists and Cornell has an online checklist. Formerly we used the USGS checklist which has a handy code (see below) but the checklist seems to have disappeared. If someone finds it see next paragraph.
If you have the USGS Birds of America checklist, it happens to be in taxonomic 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 Loon449.3 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!
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, fences, binoculars or telescopes.
|
The second tally of the 2018 Race is now open! Newcomers and returnees are always welcome. Have fun!