Hello Birders,
Those of us birding in the Commonwealth are well aware that migration has
been in full effect for several weeks. The arrival of new species each
spring starts with a few sporadic sightings and then the main push of each
species surges into and through the state. With hundreds of Virginia
eBirders out in the field, these movements are captured with brilliant
detail.
Take the Eastern Wood-Pewee, a common summer flycatcher of the eastern US
which only began arriving in the country in April. Compare a 2015 eBird
sightings map from April (http://tinyurl.com/lnwx9ur) with the first week
of May (http://tinyurl.com/llu4su8). Wow, what an increase in Virginia and
across the whole northern half of its range. This is just the tip of what
eBird can discover with the help of birders.
This Saturday, May 9th is the inaugural Global Big Day (
http://ebird.org/globalbigday/), where eBird and the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology are hoping to engage a worldwide network of birders to go out,
count birds, and support global bird conservation. Our goal is to have over
4,000 species of birds reported to eBird in a single calendar day, and to
raise $500,000 for bird conservation.
All you have to do to help is go birding and report it to eBird. You don’t
need to commit to a full 24-hours of birding on May 9th: a short visit to
the local pond or woodland or even a few minutes in your yard is still a
meaningful contribution!
Perhaps, if enough people are interested, there could even be some
good-natured mini-competitions within Virginia – which locality in the
state can report the most species on May 9th? Will birders in another
locality be able to surpass Virginia Beach for total species seen this year
or will Virginia Beach pull
away?(*http://ebird.org/ebird/subnational1/US-VA/regions?yr=cur&changeDate=Set
<http://ebird.org/ebird/subnational1/US-VA/regions?yr=cur&changeDate=Set>*) We
hope birders familiar with their region can target the "unique" species in
that area to ensure that Virginia's avian diversity is well represented.
For more detailed information on the Global Big Day, check out the Global
Big Day HQ: http://ebird.org/globalbigday/. There are participating birders
from Taiwan, India, Australia, Serbia, Portugal, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil,
Peru, Guatemala, Panama, and much more – totaling over 75 countries! I’m
sure that Virginia will be able to provide many great sightings to the
effort.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and good birding to all!
On behalf of eBird,
Ellison
--
Ellison Orcutt
Birder/Naturalist
Richmond, Va
Cell: (804) 339-6976
Mr.EllyO@xxxxxxxxx
