You are invited to join in the third annual Birdforum joint lists for 1st January. The idea is that those who want to take part provide a list of what they've seen or heard on 1 January and we produce joint lists for areas such as the UK, the USA, Europe, Australia, or wherever we get enough people interested.
The rules are simple - birds can be seen or heard, as long as the ID is firm. "Cat C" birds (that's UK jargon for introduced species with self-sustaining breeding populations) are OK as long as the bird was from the self-sustaining population. No escapes or captive birds, obviously. Birds must be encountered between midnight and midnight on 1 Jan.
Both years we've done this, we've had some surprising relatively common omissions, so there's scope for everyone to contribute, even if you're only going out for a short walk. The aim is to use the wide spread of Birdforum members around the various countries to increase the total by seeing species where they're easy.
It's supposed to be a bit of innocent fun, so don't abandon your planned 1st Jan bird-race just to find us a Great White Egret. But if we can tempt you to abandon your plan for a day in front of the TV and go birding...
Last year's totals (thread here): USA 158, Europe 175 (UK 145, rest of Europe 119), Australia 89.
2014 figures (thread here): USA 185, UK 155.
Whatever you see on 1 Jan, please post a list either of everything you've seen or (easier for me) everything you've seen that you think may not have been reported yet. I'm hoping to be out and about most of the day so if anyone's online during the day and fancies doing some running totals, that would be great. If not, I'll catch up once I'm back online.
The rules are simple - birds can be seen or heard, as long as the ID is firm. "Cat C" birds (that's UK jargon for introduced species with self-sustaining breeding populations) are OK as long as the bird was from the self-sustaining population. No escapes or captive birds, obviously. Birds must be encountered between midnight and midnight on 1 Jan.
Both years we've done this, we've had some surprising relatively common omissions, so there's scope for everyone to contribute, even if you're only going out for a short walk. The aim is to use the wide spread of Birdforum members around the various countries to increase the total by seeing species where they're easy.
It's supposed to be a bit of innocent fun, so don't abandon your planned 1st Jan bird-race just to find us a Great White Egret. But if we can tempt you to abandon your plan for a day in front of the TV and go birding...
Last year's totals (thread here): USA 158, Europe 175 (UK 145, rest of Europe 119), Australia 89.
2014 figures (thread here): USA 185, UK 155.
Whatever you see on 1 Jan, please post a list either of everything you've seen or (easier for me) everything you've seen that you think may not have been reported yet. I'm hoping to be out and about most of the day so if anyone's online during the day and fancies doing some running totals, that would be great. If not, I'll catch up once I'm back online.
