Subject: Okanagan Big Day Challenge
Date: Apr 11 10:14:12 2000
From: R.J. Cannings & M. Holm - mholm at vip.net


Dear Tweeters:

With the Calliope Hummingbirds back at my feeder it's time to start planning
for the annual Okanagan Big Day Challenge. I'm pasting the general info
below, but if you need more information please send an email directly to me
(not back to Tweeters) or visit the Meadowlark Festival website at
www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca. As part of the festival this year, there will
be birding tours of the Canadian Okanagan on Saturday, May 20, guided by
myself, Laurie Rockwell, Rick Howie and Chris Charlesworth. Frank Metcalf
will also be guiding an owling tour on Friday May 19. The tours will focus
on the South Okanagan (from a Canadian perspective, that is) and will be
searching for species such as Chukar, Spruce Grouse, Northern Pygmy-Owl,
White-throated Swift, Black-chinned and Calliope Hummingbirds, Williamson's
Sapsucker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Rock and Canyon Wrens, Western and Mountain
Bluebirds, Veery, Gray Catbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, Grasshopper and
Brewer's Sparrow, and Bobolink. The owling tour will be looking for
Flammulated, Western Screech, Barred, Northern Saw-whet and perhaps Boreal
Owl.

Hope to see you in May!

Dick Cannings
1330 Debeck Road
S11, C96, RR#1
Naramata, BC V0H 1N0
CANADA

(250) 496-4049


The 15th Annual
Okanagan Big Day Challenge!
Sunday, May 21, 2000 -- Victoria Day Weekend

What is the Big Day Challenge?
Big Day Challenge is one of the main events of the third annual Meadowlark
Festival. Teams of birders regularly come from all over Canada and the
Pacific Northwest to participate. The Okanagan Big Day Challenge is a
friendly and fun-filled competition to see which team can see and hear the
most species of birds in one day-midnight to midnight on Sunday, May 21-in
the Okanagan Valley. Winning teams usually tally about 160 bird species. The
all time record is 174!
But you don't need to be an expert to join in the fun! All that you need are
some willing sponsors, a pair of binoculars, a group of people who love to
walk around outdoors and try to identify birds, and someone to record what
you see!

Little Big Day
For those not wanting to deal with sleep deprivation, there is the "Little
Big Day," which starts at 4 a.m. (04:00 hrs.) on Sunday and ends at noon.

A Fund-raiser for Bird Conservation
For the last nine years, the Challenge has been organized as a fund-raising
event. Participants collect pledges for each species they record. This year,
the Challenge will be run as a Baillie Birdathon, a national event organized
by Bird Studies Canada. You can read the enclosed material about the
Birdathon and the programs it raises funds for; in recent years these have
included the American Avocet project in Kelowna and a survey of the birds of
the White Lake Ranch. One very important thing to remember is that you can
name an environmental organization or naturalist club of your choice to
receive a portion of the money you raise. We suggest that you list the
Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance, the group that organizes the
Meadowlark Festival, but feel free to name the group of your choice. There
are many fabulous prizes associated with the Baillie Birdathon, and every
participant receives a free T-shirt just for registering. This shirt is a
true collector's item-you can't buy it anywhere-and this year's shirt
features pictures of all the provincial birds of Canada.

Awards
The Big Day Challenge has its many coveted annual awards for teams that
manage to obtain the highest species total, the best bird of the day, the
worst miss of the day, best total by a bicycle team, best total for a
walking team, and for those who have travelled the farthest to participate,
to name a few.

How to Participate
This year there is no formal registration process other than sending in your
registration form for the Baillie Birdathon. Please drop me a line letting
me know you plan to participate, especially if you would like to be teamed
up with other birders.

Monday Morning BS Breakfast
One of the highlights of the Big Day Challenge is the Monday Morning
Breakfast, where all the participants gather to relate the adventures of the
previous day, telling of the great birds seen, the common birds missed, and
many other amusing tales. This year's breakfast will be a pot-luck affair
held at Gyro Park at the north end of Main Street, Penticton. Bring some
breakfast-like food-fruit, pastries, doughnuts, etc.-there will be coffee
and cutlery provided.
After breakfast has been eaten, all the stories told and the coveted awards
handed out, you are welcome to stay for the next Meadowlark event at that
venue: the Biodiversity Blitz hosted by John Acorn. Using the 200 or so bird
species seen on the Big Day Challenge as a starting point, we will add lists
of all the living things seen over the weekend on all the Meadowlark
Festival events, from beetles to mushrooms, wildflowers to dragonflies.
Interspersed with John's antics will be performances of songs created around
the real songs of birds, by Veda Hille and her Songbird partners. Don't miss
this event!

To contact us, or for more information
If you'd like further information about the Okanagan Big Day Challenge, call
or write Dick Cannings:
Email: cannings at vip.net
Phone/fax: 250-496-4049
Mailing address: S11, C96, RR#1; Naramata, BC; V0H 1N0
For more information on the Meadowlark Festival (or a copy of the Festival's
brochure), you can write, phone, fax, email, or check our website:
Address: Meadowlark Festival, P.O. Box 20133, Penticton, BC, V2A 8K3
Phone: (250) 492-LARK (or 492-5275)
E-mail: meadowlark at img.net
Website: www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca


THE OKANAGAN BIG DAY CHALLENGE

OBJECT

The object of a Big Day is to see or hear as many bird species as possible
on one day, usually in a given area. This year's Big Day takes place on
Sunday, May 21, from midnight to midnight. The Little Big Day competition
involves teams starting at 4 a.m. and finishing at noon.

RULES

1. Teams must have a name. If you don't have a team name before you start,
you must think one up during the day. Usually after 20 hours of straight
birding, something appropriate will surface.
2. Teams must consist of two to six (usually three or four) people
travelling in one vehicle.
3. Teams must begin and end the day within the Okanagan watershed in Canada,
and/or remain within Okanogan County, Washington.
4. No tape recorders are allowed to attract birds (they are recommended for
documentaion of a calling or singing rarity), although the participants may
imitate bird calls by whistles, grunts, hoots, or whatever.
5. No airplanes are allowed.
6. A participant may join or leave a team part way through the day, as long
as he or she is part of the team for at least half of the time that team
spends in the field. E.g. a person who is not too keen on getting up at 0200
may join his/her team at dawn without that team having to delete species not
seen by that person. A corollary of this is that the ABA's 95% rule does not
apply. A person in the field for less than half of the time must act as a
"nonparticipating companion" as defined and regulated in the ABA rules.
7. All species seen or heard during the day must be checked off a checklist
and the checklist submitted to the organizers before or during the brunch on
Monday. Any species indicated as casual, accidental or nonexistent in spring
or summer on the Okanagan checklist must be documented with a full field
description, photograph, or tape recording, and this evidence must be
submitted to and accepted by the organizers.

KEEPING SCORE

THE FLAMMULATED OWL AWARD
This award is presented to the team which records the most species during
the day. If two teams are tied, the winner is the one which saw its last
species earliest.
THE KOOTENAY KUP
This award, donated by Gary Davidson, is presented to the team, usually Gary
Davidson's, which records the second highest species total of the day.
THE LITTLE BIG DAY AWARD
To be eligible for the Little Big Day award, teams must begin after 4 a.m.
and finish birding (or collapse or whatever) before noon. Those teams which
continue birding into the afternoon are not eligible for this award, no
matter how good their species total was at high noon.
GARY LAWRENCE MEMORIAL BIRD OF THE DAY AWARD
This award will be given to the birder who first sights the "Bird of the
Day". This decision will be made by public show of hands at the Monday
brunch by all participants present.
THE SOUR GRAPES AWARD
A large cluster of green steel grapes, donated by Doug Kragh and the
now-defunct Freightliner shop in Burnaby (donating awards to this event is
clearly not good luck), is slung like an albatross around the neck of the
leader of the team which misses the commonest bird species during the
challenge, another decision made by public show of hands.
THE CRITTER CUP
Awarded to the team that sees the best non-bird animal of the day.
BICYCLING AND WALKING AWARDS
Special plaques are presented to teams that report the most species while
doing their Big Day on bicycle or on foot.
It is clear that to properly assign some of these awards, it would be very
helpful if teams kept a running list during the day, recording the time at
which each species was seen. A team wishing to submit its Big Day Count to
the American Birding Association must, of course, abide fully by ABA rules
rather than the more relaxed ones outlined above.