Events

April 16 -18, 2010

America’s Birdiest City/County Competition

For the past several years the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries, Inc. has participated in the America’s Birdiest City/County (ABCC) competition, a fun nationwide effort to proclaim America’s Birdiest Places. Thanks to your diligent efforts, Dauphin Island has been able to successfully defend its title as America’s Birdiest Small Coastal City! As my grandmother might have said, last year we won by the hair of our chinny, chin, chin, so we’ll need all hands on deck if we are to defend our title.

DIBS will host the America’s Birdiest City birding competition the weekend of the AOS Spring Meeting—April 16-18, 2010. Participating is easy and the rules are simple. At compilation on Sunday we will total the species list for each team and award prizes to the members of the winning team. We’ll then tally a grand total for Dauphin Island and pray that it will withstand the challenges from small coastal cities nationwide! Last year the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory team, birding  at Port Aransas, came close, and San Francisco has high aspirations.

1. Our 72-hour window starts Thursday, April 15 at 12 noon and runs till noon, Sunday, April 18, when the compilation will be held.

2. Teams of 2-4 people will have the entire 72-hour period to count, i.e., you don’t have to adhere to a 24-hour window.

3. All birds recorded must be seen from dry land within the town limits of Dauphin Island. This includes Sand/Pelican Island but birds must be seen from dry land, and not from a boat. There is no need to record individual numbers of birds, only bird species.

It’s as simple as that!

To facilitate keeping track of your checklist for the weekend, DIBS will provide copies of the island bird list, printed on colored paper, at the Friday night AOS gathering. Or, you may wish to download a copy in advance from this web site where you can find it under "Features".