Bird-a-Day 2015 – please consider

‘Tis the season to once again think about the virtues of Bird-a-Day and to get involved if you think the challenge is for you. As the last person still participating for the 2014 year, I feel compelled to report our experiences in the hope that you may get motivated. Meg and I have had a fabulous year of birding and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of finding a different species every day. Even though it’s my name on the list, my wife Meg & I have continued to do what we have always done when it comes to birds – we both have to see it to use it. In this Bird-a-Day year, Meg has also made a strong effort to photograph all the birds entered. Without her support and assistance, I would not have made it with the end now in sight. We originally entered the 2014 challenge as an excuse to get out of the house every day and be involved in some sort of exercise – be it walking or riding a bike, etc, etc. We were also experienced enough to know that finding a different bird daily was likely to be hard work while using up a considerable amount of our time. Consequently, we decided careful planning was required. At the end of 2013, we had gone to Melbourne in our caravan to be with our daughter and new grandson. So, on Jan. 1st, 2014, we set about finding birds that were only to be found in southern Vic. We had previously booked to visit King Island to ‘tick off’ those ferals that are found over there. This also allowed us to use a few Tas. birds in the January listings. During Feb., we took a leisurely return trip home to Bribie Island which enabled us to use some of the inland birds. It was about this time also that we were talked into booking a Mediterranean cruise with friends for Oct. & Nov. From previous cruising experiences, I knew that finding birds at sea was difficult and I fully expected that the cruise would see us drop out of Bird-a-Day. Nevertheless, we continued listing birds as we were enjoying the challenge. Back on Bribie, we made a list of the 30 most common birds to be seen here. These were to be our Dec. birds if we made it through the Mediterranean. By now, the strategizing and logical thinking were necessary to decide what bird we entered every day. Out of the possible 15 or 20 birds seen each day, which one would we use?? Usually, it was the one least likely to be seen again. One of my early strategies was to always use the smaller species – arguing that larger birds are usually easier to spot or hear. I must mention here the incredible help one can get by using Eremaea eBird and birding-aus. All the birds being reported each day by so many wonderful birdos allowed us to research what birds were around and where they were being seen. This proved especially helpful when we took out caravan north from May to August to escape the winter chills down here. Have no doubt in your mind that, if you want to make it to the end of the year, you will need to travel a lot. When a rare bird was reported anywhere close to where we happened to be, we always made the effort to track it down. Support from friends and local birdos was also gratefully received. We have had the advantage of being retired, so I must commend Joy Tansey from Victoria who finished with a total of 343 whilst still working. Trey Mitchell, who runs the Bird-a-Day web site, is very helpful and will always respond to any emails that you send him. In his rules of the challenge, you are told that you are also allowed to use a bird if you only hear it (as long as you recognize the call). You are encouraged to use the subspecies selection if the birds are reasonably different. Thus, for example, you could use Yellow Rosella, Adelaide Rosella and Crimson Rosella if you wanted. I would suggest you take advantage of this even though we used it sparingly. One does not have to only use Australian birds. Therefore, our trip to the Mediterranean was to either make or break our challenge year. By October, new birds in and around our area, were becoming increasingly difficult to find and so, we were looking forward to using the European birds. Flights through Dubai allowed us plenty of time to find a few species there. The cruise left from Venice and basically, each day, we were in a new port where finding a bird was surprisingly easy (and did not interfere with our touring/holiday experiences). The days at sea also proved to be reasonably easy. Every evening, birds (usually the small passerines), that were either still migrating south or were looking for a night roost, would land on the ship. Early each morning, we would find at least half a dozen still hanging around until about an hour after sunrise when they would all leave the ship for destinations elsewhere. If you have any questions, feel free to write and I’ll try to help. The site for the Bird-a-Day 2015 is : http://birdaday.net/ We had 30 Aussie starters this year – it would be great to see that number increase for the 2015 challenge. Best wishes to all who register. Brian & Meg Johnson.