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Thursday, May 15, 2008

How many steps does it take........

To compete in the Cape Island Division of the WSB. Well, our team walked a minimum of 40,598 steps or approximately 26.5 miles on Saturday May 10. Remember, the recommendation is that you should walk 10,000 steps a day, so in essence we walked four days worth in less than 24 hours. Over all, including scouting, I estimated that I'd walked over 175,000 (maybe closer to 200,000) steps in just over a week.

Either way, the total number of steps was not enough to win our division again this year. We were bested by one species!! by the Wild Bird Zen Zugunruhe team which tallied 145 species for the day. We heartily congratulate Zen as the birding conditions were by no means optimal. You literally had to work, and hard sometimes, for most species that were tallied for the day.

We all had a wonderful day overall and I have to thank the rest of the team (Jared and Zach Parks, Dan Small and Laura Guerard) for giving it their all both in scouting before the event and on the big day. We relied heavily on some of the scouted birds we had found and had a few surprises as it pretty typical for the day. What we found out was that not sticking to the plan of attack can have grave consequences in the long run. In assessing the day I think I can confidently say that it was the fact that we hit Higbee Beach 45 min., to an hour later than we typically do, was our ultimate undoing. Sure there were a few birds that just did not show on the day even though we knew they were in the area or some that only one team member saw but had we been to Higbee when we were supposed to, we most likely would have added two or so more species of warbler which could have put us over the top and back on the winners podium. But, there is no sense in worrying too much about the past. Assess the issue and determine the problem. Then set about trying to fix the error for next year!

All in all, the ultimate goal is to raise monies for conservation, research and education. As stated in previous posts our team was raising monies for this very web site you are viewing now. If nothing else we have done a remarkable job at achieving this goal. We have had numerous continued supporters and a few new supports this year and we heartily thank them. Of course we thank our sponsor Steiner Binoculars, as we could not ultimately pull this off with out their very generous support. Please check back to the WSB section for the updated 2008 Center Team Highlights page which will hopefully be up in the near future.

While Laura and I had technically reached our goal of breaking 100 (about 106 or so) species for May, on 5/7, we wanted to use the WSB day as the official May Cape Island Big Day. In fact, I think we had one other day where we just broke 100 and there were two other days that definitely could have. Not that this is much of a surprise, but given that were were running only half days (or had to work in the case of the days we came very close) and not really trying to hit the 100 goal it's interesting to note. Couple that with the fact that there really has not been much weather conducive to bring birds into the area (or at least nothing that has brought large numbers of migrants) it is a bit more of feat in my opinion. Heck, I am honestly surprised at the totals that all teams achieved. With the poor weather we had, it is apparent that all teams were working hard to raise as much monies as possible!

The list from the Steiner/CMBO Northwood Nightjars run at the Cape Island Cup is below.

Location: Cape Island
Observation date: 5/10/08
Notes: 40598 steps = approx. 26.5 miles
Number of species: 144

Snow Goose X
Brant X
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan X
Wood Duck X
Gadwall X
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal X
Green-winged Teal X
Surf Scoter X
Black Scoter X
Northern Bobwhite X
Red-throated Loon X
Common Loon X
Northern Gannet X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron X
Great Egret X
Snowy Egret X
Little Blue Heron X
Tricolored Heron X
Cattle Egret X
Green Heron X
Black-crowned Night-Heron X
Glossy Ibis X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey X
Cooper's Hawk X
Red-tailed Hawk X
American Kestrel X
Merlin X
Peregrine Falcon X
Clapper Rail X
Black-bellied Plover X
Semipalmated Plover X
Piping Plover X
Killdeer X
American Oystercatcher X
Spotted Sandpiper X
Solitary Sandpiper X
Greater Yellowlegs X
Willet X
Lesser Yellowlegs X
Ruddy Turnstone X
Sanderling X
Semipalmated Sandpiper X
Least Sandpiper X
Purple Sandpiper X
Short-billed Dowitcher X
American Woodcock X
Laughing Gull X
Bonaparte's Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Lesser Black-backed Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Least Tern X
Black Tern X
Common Tern X
Forster's Tern X
Royal Tern X
Black Skimmer X
Parasitic Jaeger X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Eastern Screech-Owl X
Great Horned Owl X
Barred Owl X
Common Nighthawk X
Chuck-will's-widow X
Chimney Swift X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird X
Belted Kingfisher X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Downy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) X
Great Crested Flycatcher X
Eastern Kingbird X
White-eyed Vireo X
Yellow-throated Vireo X
Blue-headed Vireo X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Horned Lark X
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow X
Bank Swallow X
Cliff Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Red-breasted Nuthatch X
Carolina Wren X
House Wren X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher X
Veery X
Wood Thrush X
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X
Brown Thrasher X
European Starling X
Northern Parula X
Yellow Warbler X
Magnolia Warbler X
Black-throated Blue Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) X
Black-throated Green Warbler X
Pine Warbler X
Prairie Warbler X
Blackpoll Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler X
American Redstart X
Prothonotary Warbler X
Northern Waterthrush X
Common Yellowthroat X
Yellow-breasted Chat X
Summer Tanager X
Eastern Towhee X
Chipping Sparrow X
Field Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak X
Blue Grosbeak X
Indigo Bunting X
Bobolink X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark X
Common Grackle X
Boat-tailed Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Orchard Oriole X
Baltimore Oriole X
House Finch X
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2

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