Malkolm with a group of students at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
Bird Year Headline News:
May 13th: Looking for rare birds in 100+ temps: life in the Texas birding fast lane…
Today we struggled into Kingsville with the "heat index" at 109 degrees. I think that must be like wind chill, a mythical number for how hot it feels when you factor in the humidity. We can report that it is bloody hot. Several days ago we failed to find a rare Piratic Flycatcher that had shown up in Corpus Christi, then departed before we arrived. Then we failed to find a Clay-colored Robin in a park in Corpus Christi. Yesterday we failed to even get to look for a pair of Masked Ducks at King's Ranch when they moved deep in the ranch (past where the ranch would permit us to cycle). We then failed to talk another ranch into allowing us to walk 5 miles to look for a Ferrugious Pygmy Owl and failed to locate a Tropical Parula at the Sarita rest stop where one had been reported the prevous week. However, to console us, Malkolm's bird list jumped to 514 (past his original target number of 500 for Bird Year)—after he identified a Hooded Oriole, a Buff-bellied Hummingbird and a Swainson's Hawk. Now we are off towards Brownsville and the lower Rio Grande Valley. Y'all come and see us if we are somewhere along your route. That goes out to people as well as migratory birds.
"All Tuckerered Out's" carpooling Bird Day Challenge/Audubon Birdathon combined!
On Saturday, April 19, the "All Tuckered Out" team conducted its annual fundraising Birdathon for Apalachee Audubon,Tallahassee, Florida. We started with our own yards and then carpooled to Waverly Pond, Lake Ella, stormwater ponds at Tallahassee Mall and Northwood Mall, Lake Elberta, Springhill Road Sewage Treatment Plant, Munson Slough, and the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
A weakening storm front brought an early morning rain and then increasing winds as the afternoon progressed. It was a beautiful day, but the birds were rather hard to come by with all the wind limiting their movement and making it difficult to hear them calling. In all we tallied 112 species for the day, with the highlight being a Roseate Spoonbill that was hanging out with the cormorants at Headquarters Pond. When something spooked the cormorants, it found a thermal and lifted off far to the north.
We have not collected all the pledges yet, but we may have raised around $1500 for our local Apalachee Audubon chapter.
Mike Tucker drove his 1987 VW van, which holds 7 people.
He said our mileage was 140 miles, and the van gets 18 mpg.
Fred Dietrich calculated:
"I think it is 14.4 bpg (birds per gallon).
140 miles / 18 mpg = 7.77 gallons.
112 birds / 7.77 gallons = 14.4 bpg."
Chris Borg reports on his BDC…
Chris Borg, who works at Tall Timbers, north of Tallahassee, Florida, recently completed his Bird Day Challenge. Please take the time to read his recap! He did a great job and gives us valuable insights into the challenges faced by migratory birds from his experience and love of wild things. And… it isn't too late to sponsor him!
Ted Stiritz's Bird Day Challenge. . .
Many great things have happened during our Bird Year. Among them was getting a message from Ted Stiritz describing his Bird Day Challenge. Read more here, including his bird list for his day!
A Great Bird Day Challenge by the Christie Family in Florida!
The Christie family from Orlando, Florida just completed a successful Bird Day Challenge! Results here . . .
And: Beth Morris's extremely successful Albuquerque Bird Day Challenge…
Read Beth's BDC Report… including photos!
Wendy Boothroyd completes her Bird Day Challenge on the Space Coast:
Breaking news: on March 16th, Wendy found 75 species and raised well over $1000 for bird conservation during her Bird Day Challenge. Jim Meyer from Cape Canaveral and Malkolm dragged her away from her morning coffee and she found 51 species within two hours. Click here to read Wendy's full report.
Message from Kenn Kaufman (Author of "Kingbird Highway" and the Kaufman Field Guide Series):
Just wanted to tell you how much I admire your current project. There's a proud tradition of serious teenaged birders making big bird year attempts that spanned the North American continent. For example, Ted Parker embarked on such a quest the year he turned 18, and I did one the year I turned 19. But without a doubt, what Malkolm is engaged in now is the most impressive big year ever!
I was fascinated by your account of how you came to focus on the "fossil-fuel-free" approach, when you were traveling to promote protection of the Arctic Refuge (a very worthwhile goal as well) and seeing the paradox of burning up all that oil in process. Several years ago I was on the editorial staff of American Birds magazine (while it was still being published by the National Audubon Society -- it's now called North American Birds and it's published by the American Birding Association). We were doing bird-a-thons every spring as fundraisers for the magazine, racing around the countryside by car, and at some point it started bothering me that we were burning up all that fuel. This was in the early 1990s, before there was widespread focus on global warming, but we already understood the basics of the greenhouse effect. Anyway, I talked my fellow staff members into doing our bird-a-thon on foot one year and by bicycle the next, and we had decent totals, up in the 130s... I still think that the basic concept was sound, and that conservationgroups should be putting their principles into action, even in their fundraising. By the very nature of what you are doing this year, you are going to make birders everywhere more conscious of the consequences of their actions. What a great thing to do! Not many people have been actively changing the world at the age of 15.
When I first heard of your plans a few months ago, I was apprehensive about your chances of success, because it seemed you were taking on a monumental challenge. I thought it could be a real setback if you got a few weeks into this massive journey and realized that it was just too much to attempt. (I know this from experience: I started in to do a big year when I was 17, but after a few weeks I felt overwhelmed by the challenge and I put it off until the following year.) But at this point, past the halfway mark in your year and with a list of well over 400, it's obvious that you three are more than equal to the challenge. I can't begin to describe how impressed I am. I've looked over your list, and it seems to me that you could wind up well over 500 species for the year -- you still have a number of Florida birds to look forward to, and quite a few eastern migrants, aside from the ones you picked up in western Canada last summer. But even if you didn't add another species after today, you still have accomplished tremendous things already.
When I was a teenaged bird-chaser, I had to hitch-hike tens of thousands of miles before it dawned on me that the list wasn't the most important thing. I think you're smarter than that, and I think the three of you, as a family, are already focused on more significant things. Certainly you're in the midst of an amazing learning experience. Traveling by bicycle, seeing how the habitat changes and the birdlife changes in subtle ways across the miles, you will wind up with a deep understanding of birdlife that few people ever achieve.
Once again, my congratulations to all three of you for taking on this noble project and for succeeding so brilliantly at it; and thank you for taking such a personal stand to make the world a better place.
Kenn Kaufman
David Allen Sibley to be "feature birder" in the Bird Day Challenge:
David Allen Sibley, author of the Sibley Guide to Birds recently told Malkolm that he would be honored to be the feature birder for the Bird Day Challenge. People who are unable to do a "bird day" of their own will be able to sponsor David. All of the money raised will go directly to bird conservation.
Ivory-billed Sock Seen in the Yukon:
Recent photographic evidence (picture on left) shows a male Ivory-billed Sock flying away from a spruce tree near Whithorse, Yukon. Critics point out that the photo is fuzzy. They insist that it is safer to assume that it is a Pileated Sock (until we get a clearer photo). We have no sound recordings of the sock. For more information, see the prizes for the Bird Day Challenge.
Need another reason to reduce your "carbon footprint"? Ice at all time low in Arctic.
There is more disturbing news about the state of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. This is bad news for Black Guillemots, polar bears, bearded seals…bad news for the fragile web of life in the Arctic. Another reason to enjoy biking, walking, car-pooling, public transport, etc.
Robert Bateman donates artwork for the Bird Day Challenge:
World-famous wildlife artist Robert Bateman recently donated a beautiful piece of artwork as one of the prizes for the 2008 Bird Day Challenge. Join us and enjoy the challenge.Think you can't see birds by human-power? Check out Dick Canning's birdathon.
