Bird-a-Day 2015 – please consider

Forwarded for Joy Tansey: Congratulations Brian and Meg it is a massive effort – and you’re the first Australians to get through the year! For me, in becoming the 2014 runner-up, the challenge was a little different. Like you, I thoroughly enjoyed the strategising and the testing of my local knowledge. I started the year by drawing up two lists: as a full-time worker I had a list of birds I could get to on a work day and a list of weekend birds, and then I spent most of the year trying to get birds off the weekend list on to the workday list. I started by using vagrants, hit and miss birds that can’t be found reliably, migrants and those least likely to be seen again, those that required effort to find and ending up with routine on the way to work and backyard birds. I did manage to get a 10 day trip away to Bowra around Easter and had 4 wonderful weeks in Brazil in August where I only had to look out the window to see something flying past. I met the challenge of datelines and the missing 30th August by having a 24hour watch that stayed set to Melbourne time. It was with some surprise that I found myself in to the second week of December before I dipped. I could not have got that far if I didn’t live so close to Werribee and the You Yangs. There were still theoretically 5 birds that I could get on a work day but I had dipped many times on each of them, particularly when I was getting desperate for them, but I have to say it was also with some relief that I finally dipped …. then I could sleep-in a bit longer, come straight home from work and start to plan for Christmas. In hindsight there were some ‘strategic errors’ early in the year as I developed my thinking and strategy, and before I stretched to the limit my idea of what was achievable before work. During the year I put some 55,000 kms on the car but I set a new PB for number of Vic birds in a single year. I loved all the sunrises and being out birding before work. It did change the way I birded for the year, mostly I had a target bird that I was after for the day and the emphasis was on getting ‘the bird’ as fast as possible so I could go and do all the other things that life required. But better birds could trump the target bird: it took about 7 trips to Anglesea before work before I finally got to use Crescent Honeyeater. I encourage everyone to have a go – at least once. It will stretch your thinking and test your knowledge. It was a lot of fun. Like Brian & Meg, I’m happy to discuss strategies with anyone having a go for the first time. I wish you good luck if you decide to register. Cheers Joy Tansey