We inadvertently left out the names of the winning team members. Pteam Ptarmigeddon: Tim Dunn, John Gluth, Pete Morris, and Taylor Sturm.
Contrary to some rumors floating around, the omission was not a further example of malfeasance on the part of the Outlaws, now dethroned as the Masked Tityras! Patricia Lindsay Bay Shore On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 4:34 PM Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> wrote: > The Seatuck Long Island Birding Challenge was conducted on Saturday, 26 > September, for the seventh year. We thank Enrico Nardone, Stephane > Perreault and others at Seatuck for the effort and care they devoted to > revising and refining the rules to ensure participants’ fun and safety in > this strange pandemic period. > > The rules changes driven by covid concerns included a requirement that > each team restrict its activities to a single county (or in the case of > sprawling Suffolk County, to either the four western towns or the more > easterly towns), but also relaxed the requirement for team members to > travel and bird together. In combination, this probably improved overall > coverage of the island and yielded a collective tally of 194 species, 10 > more than the previous highest annual total for this count. This > achievement is even more notable for having been made on a signiciantly > later data and on a much less active migration day than that of the > previous high tally. Also notable was our failure, for the first time in > seven challenges, to add any new species to the cumulative species list, > which still stands at 235. This is further evidence of the overall > thoroughness of the teams this year in detecting uncommon, hard to find, > and localized species, even in the absence of rarities. > > We had 8 teams in the field, with a total of 29 participants, and each of > the five designated areas was represented. As noted above, it was not a > major flight day, but the weather was mostly very benign all day long, > without heavy winds or other impediments to birding effort. It was 63-75 F, > overcast with good visibility in most places early, then warming up with > sun. The biggest issue was patchy fog in the morning that reduced > visibility for some. > > Area champions were: > Brooklyn: Rails Against the Machine (Shane Blodgett, Rob Jett, Heydi > Lopes, Tom Preston, and Mike Yuan) coming in at 108. > > Queens: Ladybyrders (Mary Normandia, Lisa Scheppke, Amy Simmons, Meryl > Ackley, and Phil Ribilow), tallying 111 species. > > Eastern Suffolk: Masked Tityras (Patricia Lindsay, Shai Mitra, Mike Cooper > and Doug Futuyma) coming in with 130. Three additional teams covered > Eastern Suffolk: The Bushwackers (Richard Gostic and Bob McGrath), Savage > Trackers (Stephen and Bob Savage), and The TWIN ROSE breasted Grosbeaks > (Raina Angelier, Cayla, Iris and Craig Rosenhagen). > > And finally, the two leading teams achieved totals only two species apart: > > The Classic Birders (Tim Healy, Matt Klein, Ryan Mandelbaum, and Stephane > Perreault), covering Nassau, was the runner-up team with 139 species. > > Pteam Ptarmigeddon covered Western Suffolk and came in overall first at > 141, wresting back the Twitchers Trophy from the Outlaws (whose > misdemeanors had resulted in their dispersion into different teams). The > Pteam has competed in the Challenge with the same members every year, won > the trophy the first three years, and is now back on top. > > Every single team had a least one “save,” a species not recorded by any > other team. Tied for third were Pteam Ptarmigeddon and The Classic Birders, > with 5 saves each. Second place went to Ladybyrders with 6 saves. The > winner of the informal Hunters’ Hoard award (a cache of canned spinach, > creamed corn, cream of mushroom soup, cling peaches, sardines, and Fancy > Feast ) was the Masked Tityras, with 11 saves! > > Photos and more information about the event will be updated on the Seatuck > website shortly: > > https://seatuck.org/birding-challenge/ > > We hope to see everybody back out in the field next year, under less > stressful circumstances. > > Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay > Bay Shore > > -- > > NYSbirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L > 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
