[obol] Polk County Birding Blitz results
- From: "W. Douglas Robinson" <w.douglas.robinson@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:55:29 -0700
We had an excellent turn-out of 27 skilled and motivated bird counters for the
first Oregon2020 birding blitz.
We've summarized results here and also announce the first set of Oregon2020
County Blitz Award Winners!
Our teamwork generated 436 checklists, more than doubling the current year's
total Polk checklists from observations away from bird feeders.
We moved Polk from having the 15th-most eBird checklists among Oregon counties
to 11th place, in one weekend of birding.
Out of the 27 Hotspot Squares (randomly chosen 1-square-mile sections), we
birded in 21 of them.
Our collective efforts found 141 bird species, including some pretty exciting
finds for Polk County:
Ash-throated Flycatcher at Baskett Slough NWR
Black Swift (2) at Fort Yamhill
Grasshopper Sparrows, a couple locations
Indigo Bunting near Sawtell Road
Sandhill Crane at Baskett Slough (rumor has it that Bill Tice, the current
species list leader for the county, has yet to find one)
Birds sometimes tough to find here in June:
Peregrine Falcon (2, one at the refuge and one chasing Cliff Swallows at the
Willamette River)
Greater Yellowlegs (fall migrants)
Black Tern
Townsend's Solitaire near Little Grass Mountain
Fox Sparrow (very late or over-summering) at Livermore and Smithfield Road
And, we found 15 species of waterfowl.
Blitz Awards go to:
The Maniac Award, for most checklists generated, goes to Marcia Cutler and Pam
Oteley (39 in one day!)
The Neat Freak Award, for cleanest and clearest data sheets, goes to Russ Namitz
The Urban Legend Award, for most starlings, house sparrows, and pigeons
counted, goes to Dave Irons and Shawneen Finnegan
To make up for such a prestigious award, they also get the Longest List award
for most species detected
The Big Bird Award, for most Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and pelicans,
goes to Sarah Marshall and Nate Richardson
The Raptorial Award, for most raptors, goes to Mark Baldwin and Clay Crofton
(where were you Jeff Fleischer?)
The Dead Meat Award, for most vultures, goes to Suzanne Austin-Bythell
The Explorer Award, for venturing into very unexplored country, goes to Jim
Fairchild and Bob Archer for searching the remote southwest corner of Polk
County
And there were 3 special awards for this Blitz:
The If-Lance-Armstrong-Were-A-Birder Award, for birding the Coast Range on a
mountain bike, goes to Brandon Wagner
The La Machina (the machine) Award, to Evan Jackson, for birding 12 hours
without eating anything (we're pretty sure he left the compilation early so he
could gorge on pizza somewhere)
We can't decide if the last award should be called The Teamwork Award or The
Incompetency Award: Most people needed to change a flat tire: 5 Hallman,
Curtis, Austin, Mair and Robinson
We want to thank everyone who contributed to a great blitz!
Chris Adlam
Bob Archer
Suzanne Austin-Bythell
Mark Baldwin
Clay Crofton
Jenna Curtis
Marcia Cutler
Jim Fairchild
Shawneen Finnegan
Mary Garrard
Tyler Hallman
Jon Hazen
Dave Irons
Evan Jackson
Jarod Jebousek
Spencer Mair
Sarah Marshall
John Matthews
Russ Namitz
Kim Nelson
Pam Oteley
Bill Proebsting
Nate Richardson
Douglas Robinson
Karl Smith
Brandon Wagner
Will Wright
????Where shall we go next???? Please let us know your thoughts!
Here are some ideas: Columbia County (ranked 26th in Oregon, yet right next
door to our largest city)
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