You can win prizes in 2011 just by reporting your sightings to eBird! Well, if you bird in New York City, on Long Island, or in downstate New York and finish in the top three in a complex array of categories you can. Get the details on Warblings and see who’s ahead on NYC Nova Hunter.
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.
Corey, just second in one county?
By the way, totally unrelated, but don’t you find the following quote from the movie Top Gun horribly sexist (re-translated from German, so it might not even exist in the original):
“The list with the runner-ups is in the Ladies’ Restroom”
🙂
307 species for one birder in the first three weeks of 2011 on Manhattan Island. That seems impossibly high.
@Clare: the “Kingbird 10” area includes the American Museum of Natural History. Someone should revise the rules of the contest.
@Clare: That ‘307’ is the number of “Total Ticks” the person has amassed in Kingbird Region 10 so far this year (which includes seven counties). It’s the sum of the number of species seen in these counties, so one species (House Sparrow, for example), could be counted seven times if seen in each of those counties.
@Jochen: I am going for quality over quantity this year, which is why I took Desi to Brooklyn today to see a Black-headed Gull.
This lists need to be handicapped to reflect quality. The ABA rankings won’t do it, we need a local who knows what is rare in the Kingbird 10 area and what is common. I think Desi has had more exposure to birding than many experienced birders, and nominate him.
@Donna S: I would totally win. Except that I am the disciplinarian so I wouldn’t. His stuffed Long-wattled Umbrellabird would probably be declared the winner.
@Corey: I’ll immediately rush over to Nate’s blog. I am sure you’ve dropped that comment bomb onto every post he wrote in the last 6 months.
And I read your comment as really saying that size doesn’t matter… 😉
Ah, thanks for the explanation Benjamin. Appreciate it.