On May 10th, the Redheads won the 2014 World Series of Birding. The Redheads are the team of elite birders from Cornell Lab of Ornithology that includes Benjamin Van Doren as a member.
The World Series of Birding attracts about 1,000 of the best birders from around the world. The World Series is like a big day – the objective is to determine which team can count the greatest number of bird species within the state of New Jersey within a single 24 hour period. In the process, the teams raise funds for good causes by having friends and families pledge a monetary amount for each species seen, raising over $500,000 annually.
This is the 31st year of this annual event which draws top birders to the competition. Around 100 teams officially enter the competiton. In addition many unofficial teams participate. And it is a competition. The elite teams actually scout the state for the week ahead of the event. They meticulously plot where every key bird can be found and enter it into their GPS.
The results astound me. The winning team totals around 220 – 240 species during the event which is normally held on the 2nd Saturday of May. That equates to 10 new species per hour, or one new species every 6 minutes for 24 straight hours. During the event the winning team often drives 4-500 miles.
Some teams are not quite so competitive. Rather than cover the entire state of New Jersey, some teams restrict their birding to only Cape May County, some to only a part of Cape May itself , while others do all their birding by bicycle. There is even one team that rents a school bus and leisurely birds Cape May stopping for nice lunch.
It is a fun (and for some, a serious) event that raises a lot of money for charity.
Congratulations to Benjamin and the entire Redhead team for winning this year.
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