Hi all,
David, I think this is a great idea. This is perfect timing for me too,
I've been walking the Greenbelt behind my house more often the past month
or two so I've already been excited about birding near my house and this
will help more.
I used the "Count Circle" app on my iPhone to make my patch, and was
excited to see some really good birding hotspots that are in my patch. So
far I just have 29 species for the year, but for "life" in my patch I have
61 -- and currently that's with only two locations in my patch. To increase
my patch numbers, I am going to submit more eBird lists for "incidental"
species when I'm out and about (since often I'll be in my patch anyway
while running errands), and also make an effort to go out birding more
often in my patch.
I'll be joining your Patch Facebook group too, but I'm all for sharing
updates with each other on Texbirds from time to time too.
Thanks!
Holly Platz
San Antonio
On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 7:08 PM Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi David –
OK, I agree – we need a decent challenge for COVID (Stay At Home)
Birding. Time to dust off my Patch.
However, the list I keep will ONLY be my observations – I am not going to
let eBirders do the work for me. If I were going to use the eBird
sightings to populate the Patch List, why bother to go out myself?
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
401-964-9064
*From:* texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *David Sarkozi
*Sent:* Sunday, March 22, 2020 11:36 AM
*To:* TexBirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [texbirds] Texas Local Patch Challenge.
I think its time for another Texas Local Patch Challenge. We had one in
2016 where the goal was how many species could you find in your local
patch. We defined a local patch as a 7.5 mile radius circle centered on
your home (same as a CBC circle). Its a great way to discover fun birding
locations close to home.
In 2016 I set up a FB group for this interested in the challenge at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/texaslocalpatchchallenge/ why There we
share some of our fun discoveries and of immediate interest ways to draw a
circle so you know on a google map what's in your patch.
eBird has feature called Patch Totals (Explore tab) Great a patch using
the public and personal hotspots that are in your patch and eBird does all
the work on keeping the totals for you.
Stay safe, stay close to home, and have some fun, eBird says I'm already
at 85 species in my local patch for 2020. What's your total?
--
David Sarkozi
Houston, TX
(713) 412-4409 twitter ID dsarkozi
