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WORDS ON BIRDS
Birding competition heats up the winter
January 20, 2007
Steve Grinley
If you look out your window during the next week and
see a car driving slowly through your neighborhood, it is probably not
a thief "casing the joint." It is more likely a Superbowl of Birding
participant checking out your or your neighbor's bird feeders in
preparation for next Saturday's competition.
Next Saturday is the Superbowl of Birding IV, sponsored
by the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center. Teams of birders
spend 12 hours, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., searching for birds in an
attempt to find the most species in Essex County and/or Rockingham
County, NH. Teams try to earn the greatest number of points based on
the rarity of the birds recorded. Strategy and planning are essential
in order to win this competition and team members are "scouting" days,
and even weeks, before the competition. I must admit that I have been
scouting the neighborhoods, looking for a wintering grackle, catbird,
towhee or oriole and hoping for a pine siskin or dickcissel.
It has been disappointing to see so many empty feeders.
Perhaps now, with the colder temperatures and threats of snow, more
folks will put out food for the birds. I always like to check the suet
feeders because that's where some of the more unusual birds gravitate.
Any wintering wrens, warblers, kinglets, brown creepers and even
bluebirds, orioles and catbirds will eat suet. Some of my customers
have been feeding mealworms to bluebirds since last summer, and this
is the second winter that I've had to continue stocking mealworms.
I have also found a few good birds at open birdbaths.
As the temperature falls and fresh water becomes less available, birds
will seek out a birdbath with a heater for water to drink. I found a
ruby-crowned kinglet at a heated bath just last week. Bluebirds,
hermit thrushes and wintering robins appreciate an open birdbath.
Last year, in Superbowl III, teams found a total of 133
species of birds. Past Superbowls have attracted participants from as
far away as Delaware and Pennsylvania. But you don't have to be an
expert birder to participate, nor do you even have to travel to see
the birds. The event consists of activities targeted for all ages and
levels of birders. Beginning birders, or those who prefer indoor
birding at this time of year, can join Joppa Flats naturalists in the
indoor bird blind at the Education Center. More experienced birders
can form a team of their own. There is also a Young Birders category
for teams with members 18 years of age or younger.
The Seekers Award is new this year and has its own
special checklist. There is also a Sitting Duck Award for the greatest
number of species tallied from a fixed point, which could be your yard
or anywhere you choose! Last year, we had families participate and it
was great fun. Two awards, the NewBies Award for the greatest number
of points tallied by any team with two or more members 18 years of age
or younger and the Lifer Award for the participant who sees the most
new life birds during the competition, are both achievable for
families that take part. Last year, a NewBies Award was won by the
Martin family of Boxford. They called themselves the Purple Martins
(even though it wasn't that cold last year!).
And, yes, there are those great team names that help
feed the competition. The "Wicked Pishahs" won the Joppa Cup last
year. Other winners included the "Molting Jackdaws," the New Hampshire
4th and Longspurs, and the Hunker Downs, appropriately named winners
of the Sitting Duck Award. Then, there is my team, winners of last
year's Directors Award for the most species, and most appropriately
named the Raven Loon-atics.
To create your own team name, to join another team or
to get more information, check online at
www.massaudubon.org/superbowl or contact the Joppa Flats Education
Center at 978-462-9998. Steve Grinley
Bird Watcher's Supply & Gift and Nature Shop at Joppa Flats
Newburyport, MA
BirdWSG@Verizon.net
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