*Note: Friday’s post, ‘Battle Lines,’ was not for paid subscribers (a feature Bird Mountain doesn’t use). Please advise if your access was restricted*
Dear Bird Mountain subscriber:
If you haven’t seen Mark’s Facebook, then you are likely unaware that he and Paola—AKA The Velociraptors—will be sitting on the balcony all day tomorrow to raise money for conservation here in central Pennsylvania.
Please consider donating to the cause. It is part of the Earth Week Birding Classic, an effort started seven years ago by a former student of Mark’s, Catie Farr, at Penn State Altoona. It was Catie’s legacy to her Environmental Studies program, and she has continued organizing it since then. Basically, teams raise money via pledges for birding activities that take place within any 24-hour period during Earth Week, culminating on Earth Day. There are several categories; we are the first-ever competitors in the “Wild Turkey” category, which involves sitting in one spot (known as a point count, Big Sit, etc.).
Here is the link to Mark’s Facebook page where the fundraiser is pinned. All funds will go to Juniata Valley Audubon Society and will be used to support small conservation efforts in the area. Half will stay with JVAS and half will go to environmental projects for students and Penn State Altoona.
Currently, Mark is the president of JVAS, so he will be happy to answer any questions you might have (and if you’re local, we would certainly welcome you at any of our numerous events! If you’re not local, our monthly speakers can always be seen on Zoom as well).
GOALS:
The rules of our category state that at least one person has to be present within a small, immobile circle at all times. In our case, the circle includes most of our apartment and of course the balcony.
Our main fundraising goal is to raise at least $500 by Earth Day ($125 already raised!) and our main birding goal is to detect (sight or hearing) at least 50 species during the course of the day, which technically begins tonight at midnight but is more likely to kick off around 5 AM. As you know if you’ve been following Bird Mountain, the highest recorded dawn sit so far this year at this spot is 36 species. Fifty isn’t too much of stretch for the course of the entire day; the upper limit, if it’s a good day for migrant raptors, is probably about 60. Even on a quiet Sunday, it’s going to be tough to hear some of the species farther down the tracks that don’t show up regularly here, like Eastern Screech-Owl and White-throated Sparrow, but we’ll try!
We’ll see what we can do about updating Bird Mountain tomorrow. Maybe we’ll try the new Notes feature…
Thanks so much for any support you can offer!
Sincerely,
The Velociraptors
(Tyrone, Pennsylvania)