I suspect many of them don’t have day-jobs. We’ve birded a lot on the weekends and at least a little bit each day starting January 1. I’m tracking how we’re doing on the ebird list. So far we’ve recorded 129 species. We’re currently at number 7 in the county for most number of species. You didn’t know birding was a competitive challenge? It’s a charming competition. We all want to identify and record more birds than the other guy, but it’s also a very friendly cooperation. If someone finds a rarity, they promptly tell everyone else where and when, often with directions on how to find it. If we’re standing there looking at a screech owl hidden in a hole and someone else wanders by, we point it out to them. Our competition could be better described as co-opetition. Today we found two burrowing owls.
