Bird Year and Bird Day

The Bird Year Bikers have finished over 6,000 miles and are about to cross into Texas. They are on their way from Carlsbad, NM to Port Aransas, TX (obviously to see the Whooping Cranes). They are looking for inland Texas birds: Mountain Plover, Lapland Longspur, and Sprague's Pipit. So, if anyone has seen these birds recently anywhere between El Paso and the Central Texas coast, please shoot them a quick email so they can plan their route though Texas.

I really admire what these guys are doing. While most birders have environmental concerns, they will still drive hundreds of miles a month in their trucks and SUVs to go birding. Really, it's inevitable, unless you have as much free time as these guys do. I at least try to drive my fuel-efficient Honda Civic if I have to drive outside the Beltway to go birding.

Upon further browsing their site, I came across their Fossil-Free-Reduced Bird Day Challenge, in which they are encouraging every bird to spend one day of the spring to go birding while reducing their fossil fuels. They've even got David Sibley to participate! I will definitely put aside one day to do another Bike, Bird, and Buses run, as I did in this entry. But instead of just doing a single morning, I'll do an entire day. They even have prizes for various things, none of which I think I could win at. Perhaps if I skipped the bus part, I could ride my bike all over Houston and get the "Farthest traveled without using fossil fuels" prize. I might be able to get a prize for "Short Description of an Incident ..." award.

I've read nearly every "Big Year" book published in North America. I really hope these guys write a book about their travels, because it sounds like a very exciting journey!