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It's worth participating in the Eugene CBC for the chili alone.
Lars
On Jan 11, 2017, at 10:17 AM, Maeve and Dick wrote:
I apologize for being a little late in getting into the CBC discussion.
I have been the coordinator for the Eugene Christmas Bird Count (ECBC) for
12 years and have gone on close to 40 ECBCs. This year was the 75th ECBC
and to celebrate this milestone, the sponsor of the ECBC, Lane County
Audubon Society, had small “lapel” pins made for all participants, home
counters, helpers and past participants. We always have a big Chili Feed at
the end of the day which attracts around 100 birders. The vegetarian chili
is home made by Allison Mickel who makes 10 gallons of chili! We also had
two large cakes for dessert decorated like the lapel pin.
We have our circle divided into 27 Areas and each Area has an expert
birder as the Team Leader. The leaders assemble their teams and I supplement
the teams with people who contact me wanting to go on the Count. Each year
we have 30 to 40 new people wanting to go on the Count. Some decide to be
Home Counters, some show up for one year, some never show even after saying
they will, some come back for several years and some keep coming until death!
This year we had 130 people in the field and 111 Home Counters. Our goals
include using the ECBC as a means to get more people interested in birds and
to have fun. Since each team has an expert birdwatcher as the leader and
usually two or three more good birders on the team, new bird watchers can
learn about birds while meeting other bird watchers and the team effort in
finding birds is still accomplished. This year we had 131 species on Count
Day and 10 during Count Week. Ten CW species is an unusually large number.
Dan Gleason will be sending a complete analysis of our Count to OBOL soon.
Dick Lamster
maeveanddick@xxxxx
P.S. If you have participated in a past ECBC and would like a 75th
Anniversary pin, send me your name and address and I will get one to you.
