Subject: [Tweeters] off-topic: Last call for first YardBirdRace
Date: Dec 22 16:36:15 2004
From: newboldwildlife at netscape.net - newboldwildlife at netscape.net



Hi all,

Congratulations Gene Revelas!

The deadline for entering the 1st Annual Greater Seattle YardBirdRace (to be celebrated in many parts of the world, including New York City) is 12 midnight, December 31, 2004.

An ad for the race will be appearing in Washington Birder?s coming winter issue. By the way, anyone who doesn?t get this spectacular, very helpful and quite beautiful publication (No I?m not referring to my mug shot on Page 5!) might want to immediately rectify that by writing:

Washington Birder
2604 NE 80th St.
Vancouver, WA 98665
(washingtonbirder at hotmail.com)
and the price of subscription is only $11. per year.



What follows is a draft of a press release that is about to go out plus the currrent leaderboard:

Press Release The first ever all new YardBirdRace is going down to the buzzer!
Photo: first year Harris Sparrow, with caption
Greater Seattle?s FIRST EVER officially competitive yard birding event is heading into its final days. But no leader is secure as the competition remains open to new entrants who have been keeping a year-yard-list but will close officially at midnight on December 31, 2004. The YardBirdRace is a competition to see which entrant has observed the most species of birds from their house and yard of less than 1.2 acres in the Greater Puget Sound area in the year 2004.
Regardless of who may still enter, however, it?s quite possible that the overall winners will remain Eric and Laura Kraig of unincorporated Thurston County who overlook the Nisqually Refuge and have amassed a remarkable list of 119 species. Included on it are species that won?t show up on most Western Washington yard lists, such as Harris Sparrow (most winter to the south and east of our state) and Nighthawk (seriously declined in Western Washington) as well as birds that don?t always bless more urban neighborhoods (even wildlife-friendly ones) with their presence, such as Chipping Sparrow, Cassin?s Vireo, Tundra Swan and Green Heron.
Veteran birders Patrick and Ruth Sullivan may well have sewn up the Pierce County lead with 84 species, and as things now stand that would clobber King County. Meanwhile the King County race remains excruciatingly close at 71 to 70, with Norma Larson of Tukwila, whose list includes an American Kestrel, clinging to a one-species lead over Linda Davey of Sammamish. Davey has added three species including a Surf Scoter in the fall season while Norma, perhaps sadly from the point of view of YardBirdRace officials, has moved.
Redmond and Bellevue are locked in a tie, at 55 each by Grace Olliver and Christy Anderson respectively.
Seattle?s overall leader is Denis DeSilvis, who has recorded a cool 60 species operating from a working yard at the Turning Basin. The Greenbelt class is led by Lynne Darnell of West Seattle with a White Breasted Nuthatch among other great birds totaling 55 while Sandra ?Sam? Woods of Mt. Baker is in front by two in the potentially huge ?residential? class of Seattle. Patricia Lott is winning in Class M, Multifamily from a Greenwood yard with 26 species recorded. Enclosed is the current leaderboard for the 1st annual greater Seattle YardBirdRace, along with contact phone numbers and email addresses of participants. A willingness to speak to the media is a prerequisite for entering.
The YardBirdRace is organized by Ed Newbold, a wildlife artist with a store by the newsstand at the Pike Place Market who has been in business for over 21 years and is hoping to promote birding and wildlife-friendly landscaping.

. LEADERBOARD

#1 Overall: Eric & Laura Kraig. Thurston Co. near Nisqually Reach, 119

#1 Pierce County #1 Fircrest Ruth & Patrick Sullivan Fircrest, WA 84

#1 King County, #1 Tukwila : Norma Larson Tukwila 71

#2 King County #1 Sammamish : Linda Davey 70

#1 Bellevue Christy Anderson 55

#1 Redmond Grace Olliver 55
#1 Eatonville Dawn Bailey 55

#1 Seattle overall and #1 Class W (waterview, in Seattle) Denis DeSilvis Duwamish Turning Basin 60

#1 Class G (greenbelt Seattle) #1 West Seattle Lynne Darnell West Seattle 50

#1 Class R #1 Mt. Baker (residential Seattle) Sandra (Sam) Wood 43
#2 Class R Georgia Conti West Seattle 41
#1 Phinney Ridge (Class R) Brett Wolfe 34
#1 Queen Anne (Class R) Rachel Lawson 25

#1 Class M (multifamily Seattle) Patricia Lott Greenwood 26

End of press release

Late entrants are still very welcome. Enter by emailing me your current total list, the whereabouts of your yard of less than 1.2 acres, and your phone number. Also try to include the name of your local neighborhood or town or region newspaper and possibly any local tv or radio that I wouldn?t know about. Entering constitutes a willingness to be publicized and talk to the media (the word celebritized is what I really mean).

Entrants can pick up a door prize at my store, a box of 8 wildlife note cards and a shade coffee poster.

Yearbirds are defined as birds seen from the yard, and do not have to have been physically in the yard, from January 1 2004 through December 34, 2004.


Ed Newbold, residential Beacon Hill Seattle. newboldwildlife at netscape.net



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