Greetings All:
This year's competition: Rich Kostecke's Austin yard vs. Anthony Hewetson's
Lubbock yard. The rules: anything that can be seen from the yards (no
restrictions to yard 'airspace'), heard birds subject to review and
agreement, no eye gouging, and no birding below the belt.
Rich ended August with 73 species and September brought Upland Sandpiper,
Mourning Warbler, and Northern Parula to his yard, bringing him up to 76
species for 2016.
Anthony ended August with 78 species and, to be fair - spending a lot more
time in his yard than his adversary, prevailed in September, adding
Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Least Flycatcher, Blue Grosbeak, Lark Sparrow,
Swainson's Thrush, MacGillivray's Warbler, and Brewer's Sparrow to his
yard, bringing him up to 85 species for 2016.
Kostecke has expressed some optimism vis-a-vis migratory songbirds during
October and will, hopefully, get a chance to spend more time birding his
yard but, and I may be biased, things are looking surprisingly good for me
this year.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
