competitions

What Will Be Number 300 In Queens? Guess Correctly And Win The Warbler Guide!

July 2, 2013 by Corey 19 Comments

An Elegant Tern would be an amazing 300th bird!

Red-necked Stint. Virginia’s Warbler. American White Pelican. Black-bellied Whistling Duck. Little Gull. Northern Saw-whet Owl. Ash-throated Flycatcher. And that’s just seven of the 299 birds I have seen in Queens so far. I want number 300 so badly that I can almost taste it…I wonder what it will be and when I will see it? What do you think? Wait, don’t tell me yet – read on!

Instead of just finding bird 300 and later blogging about it I want to make sure that at least one person out there in the world would truly share my joy. And what better way than to share an awesome book about birds with the person who correctly predicts bird number 300? Fortunately, the folks at Princeton University Press agreed, and the person who correctly guesses my 300th species of bird in Queens will get a free copy of The Warbler Guide (which Donna reviewed).

How do you enter? Just follow the easy steps below!

  1. Write a comment in the comment section of the blog with the name of the species you think that will be my 300th.
  2. Include the date that you think I will see it. (The closest to the actual date will win if more than one person guesses the correct bird.)
  3. Make sure that the email address that you use is one that I can reach you at if you win.
  4. Only guess once! If you guess multiple species I will only count your first guess.
  5. Oh, you might want to take a look at my current Queens list to see what I have seen so you don’t accidentally guess a bird that is already checked off my list.

Brown Pelican

A Brown Pelican would be a nice bird to add to the Queens list.

I recognize that this game might give an unfair advantage to those who are familiar with patterns of occurrence of birds in Queens or of my birding habits so I will list a few hints as to what birds seem most likely at this moment. (Or you could look at my previous prediction posts.)

  1. There are two shorebirds that occur at least annually in Queens that I have not yet checked off my Queens list and shorebird season is pretty much here.
  2. Brown Pelican is missing from my Queens list and this is an ideal weekend to hit the beach.
  3. Could a kite show up in Queens? I have missed two Swallow-tailed Kites and a Mississippi Kite in the last couple of years (All were single-observer birds that did not stick around.)
  4. I have never checked off any species of shearwater in Queens and I do plan to seawatch this weekend. Sooty? Manx? Corey’s? Great?
  5. Maybe I will finally get a Black Vulture? One was spotted earlier this year over the Grand Central Parkway!
  6. If I get through the summer without seeing anything new I have somehow never seen a Western Kingbird in Queens.
  7. You never know what species could show up in this amazing place I call home…nothing is impossible!

So, readers, guess away! And if you like the idea of this contest please help spread the word…the more guesses the more likely that someone will claim The Warbler Guide! See you in the comments.

Many thanks to Princeton University Press for agreeing to give the lucky winner a copy of The Warbler Guide!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.