The 2010 World Series of Birding is just around the corner, and the Scarlet Knight-Herons are back for another go. This year we've added a 5th team member, Derek Lovitch of http://www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/ He'll join Bill, Brian, Charlie, and David as they try to top last year's total of 178 species.
Early spring scouting has begun. Brian has been in northern NJ searching for raptor nests, and Bill will join him this weekend to start looking and listening for breeding songbirds. While many of the breeding bird locations have been pinned down over the years, there are always a few that give WSB teams trouble, and now is the time to scout possible alternatives to the "tried and true" route.
Lots of questions still remain for our team - where will we start this year? The usual starting point, Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, will be open only to foot traffic this year. That could cost teams valuable time. It may become a necessity, though, if the night birds found there aren't breeding or calling in other convenient locations. Our timing will need to be tweaked this year as well, as we ended up in Belleplain mid-day last WSB, with very few birds moving about or vocalizing. The next few weeks are when the event is won or lost - and we've got lots of logistics and scouting to keep us busy until May 15th.
Please help us out by donating - you can use the PayPal link to the right of this page or contact any member of the team directly. All donations will go to conservation efforts. Last year we were able to raise $1000 for the Ecology & Evolution Graduate Student Association of Rutgers University. Pretty exciting!
Thanks for reading, everyone! Stay tuned for more updates!
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