Thanks to all those who followed our “Wild Birds Unlimited Team” on Facebook during our Big Day as we competed in our local Audubon chapter’s Birdathon (Competitive Birding is for the Birds). The purpose of the Birdathon was to raise money for bird education and conservation (and have a great time birding in the field). Here are a few highlights.

Our day started off in the dark at 5 a.m. We met in a parking lot to carpool, and we were surrounded by our first bird species; the American Robin. They were singing up a storm.

We headed out of the city and began in earnest in a state forest. The birds were waking up and the dawn chorus (The Dawn of Spring) was in full swing. We had 63 species by 8 a.m. Highlights included Wild Turkey, Ruffed Grouse, Worm-eating Warblers and 15 other warblers.

We were doing really well finding so many birds and then we hit a major road block – literally. There was a lot of flooding and many of our desired locations were inaccessible. The picture I snapped with my iPhone kind of says it all.

By 2:30 p.m. we were only at 91 species which included 23 warblers. We had hoped for 100 species by noon.

By 4 p.m. we had our 100th bird; a Northern Bobwhite! 101 was a Purple Martin.

The rest of the evening was slow, but we still saw some very interesting birds. We found Bobolinks, various sparrows and three rails.
As our Big Day came to a close, we reflected on all that had happened. We were detoured but not deterred by flooding. We avoided a severe storm that produced a beautiful rainbow and a gorgeous sunset. We ended the day with our last bird, a Common Nighthawk. It was species number 119.