October Big Day/ Migratory Bird Day  2022

Global Bird Day October 8, 2022

 

Mark your calendars for October Big Day—8 October 2022!

 

Big Days are a 24-hour opportunity to celebrate birds near and far.  Last October, more than 32,000 people from 195 countries submitted 78,000 checklists with eBird, demonstrating the power of birds to bring people together.

 

Wherever you are on 8 October, take a few minutes to join the world of birding on October Big Day.  Participate from anywhere—even home!  By taking part in October Big Day you’re also celebrating Global Bird Weekend and World Migratory Bird Day.  Be a part of the global team and help set a new record for October birding.

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Spring 2022’s Global Big Day -- May 14

By Marsha Squires

Here in Juneau, the grass was wet, the thermometer read 38 degrees, and there wasn’t a bird in the yard when my son and I packed up at 5:30 a.m. for Global Big Day (GBD) adventure.  Nevertheless, we had high hopes and giddy attitudes. By 7:30 a.m., we were shedding layers with abandon and had had our eyes on dozens of species. We anticipated a great day of birding ahead! 

 

For us, GBD proved to be a grand opportunity to see numerous shorebirds and ducks, with the Snow and White-Fronted Geese an added treat. We were a bit disappointed not to see or hear an Orange-Crowned Warbler, or encounter a Belted Kingfisher or Wandering Tattler but birding is like fishing at times, right? Can’t catch them all the time.

 

Yet, around the world on every continent, birds were seen, heard, enjoyed, and counted, making this GBD the best year on record. An astounding 7,673 species were recorded with more than 433 more species than last year. With roughly 10,000 species of birds on our planet, I’d say the effort was outstanding!

 

In Juneau, 101 species were recorded by 24 participants with 60 checklists submitted to eBird. See the day's list at bit.ly/gbd-22.

For GBD purposes, our local Audubon encompasses seven regions(counties) in eBird (Juneau, Sitka, Yakutat, Skagway-Hoonah- Angoon, Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan, Ketchikan Gateway, and Wrangell-Petersburg). Keeping this in mind, our sister regions added an additional 27 more species, 12 more participants, and 70 more checklists for the grand total of 128 species, 36 eBird participants, and 130 checklists.

After a full day of birding, in eight different locations, my son and I sat at the dinner table  carfing our meal and half-heartedly viewingour backyard. We wanted a few more pecies to cap our total. With mouths full, sharing the tales of the day to our audience of one, we both screamed at the same time “sapsucker!” We jumped up to see a Rufous hummingbird at the feeder as well.

 

Both of us have found so much joy in sharing birds with each other that I honestly didn’t want the day to end. Yet, we decided that we really did need to call it a day. Our feet were tired and our hearts were full. We look forward to more days of birding together and participating in future GBD events.

 

Thanks to all of you who participated and encouraged others to share in this special day of birding, and I welcome others to join in  the excitement and joy the next time a GBD event hits the calendar.

 

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October Big Day   2021

Global Bird Day October 9, 2021

By Brenda Wright

Bird viewing is being encouraged all over the world by creating Global Bird Day counts. Cornell and eBird are challenging local birders to go out and see local birds. The Global bird days are to help document local birds at times when birds are migrating to winter homes. It is also a good way to see which local birds are still in the neighborhood. For us in Juneau it is a chance to see how many of our winter species have returned to our town.

 

In Juneau we didn’t have the most pleasant weather, but luckily, our birders can enjoy a birding challenge any time of year.  So I checked in the eBird (eBird.org) submissions for Juneau and other locations around SE Alaska and this is what I found:

• Juneau had 30 complete checklists and 66 species observed.

• Gustavus had 2 complete checklists and 25 species observed.

• Ketchikan had 2 complete checklists and 55 species observed.

• Sitka had 6 complete checklists and 48 species observed.

• Prince of Wales Island had 2 complete checklists and 9 species observed.

• I could not find any checklists for Hoonah, Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, or Skagway.

Some of the interesting birds reported included black oystercatchers, Sabine’s gull, and fork-tailed storm petrels in Sitka. Yellow and orange crowned warblers, 32 robins, red breasted loon, Iceland and California gull, a flotilla of 270 common murres, and 150 western grebe in Ketchikan. Gustavus reported 35 Northern pintails, a pectoral sandpi-per, Wilson’s snipe, American pipit, and a Lapland longspur.

Juneau’s birds included Anna’s hummingbird, Northern shoveller, yellow warbler, peregrine falcon, herring gull, Lincoln sparrow, short-eared owl, merlin, white-throated sparrow, great-horned owl, American coot, and Pelagic cormorants. Our best hot spot was the Mendenhall wetlands, both the dike trail and river mouth. The next best were Eagle Beach and Kingfisher pond.

 

Hope everyone can get out and enjoy birding all year round.