Hi all, Here?s some Racing News:

Andrew Emlen in Skamokawa A is at 65, just 19 short of the Wahkiakum County record, with Hammonds and Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Sandhill Crane and Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Another southerner, Wilson Cady, is at 53 in Skamania Co. with Calliope Hummingbird, Cassin?s Finch, 6 warblers inc. Hermit, Townsend?s and Black-throated Gray and Saw-whet Owl.

In Tahuya, Idie Ulsh is at 42 with Cassin?s Vireo, Evening Grosbeak, Pacific-slope Flycatcher & Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Michael Hobbs in Kirkland is at 44 with Red Crossbill, Lincoln?s Sparrow and Wilson?s Warbler.

Penny Rose in West Seattle is at 42 in West Seattle, where recordholders Flynn Benevente have Sandhill Crane and Ferruginous Hawk.

In her other ?working? yard, Discovery Park, Rose is past the century mark at 101 with Wilson?s Snipe, Cassin?s Vireo, Mountain Bluebird and Olive-sided Flycatcher.

Scott Hoskin is at 43, 18 short of the Ballard record with the first reported Eurasian Collard Dove, pix on the Breaking News site.

In Licton Springs, Josh Hayes is at 28 with the recent flyover of a Great Blue Heron.

Guy McWethy in Renton is back in racing and on a tear. See breaking news.

Kristi Hein and Casey Bazewick have added California Quail in Anacortes for 43

And there?s more at the leaderboard at:

http://ednewbold.com/ybr_leaderboard.html

And some more news at the press release page at:

http://ednewbold.com/ybr_breakingnews.html


And pictures from today?s amazing ?fallout? of warblers at Butyl Creek here on Beacon Hill at :

http://ednewbold.com/sightings.html




Enter the YardBirdRace! Email your 2008 yard list to
yardbirdrace at yahoo.com



and help conserve birds. YardBirdRace paid for over $1,600 in memberships to bird conservation organizations from the 07 Race, mainly American Bird Conservancy & World Birdwatch--some to Audubon Societies and WA Birder.

Thanks all, Ed Newbold on residential Beacon Hill Seattle.

yardbirdrace at yahoo.com or ednewbold1 at yahoo.com

PS, I?d like to say a couple things about Bob and Judy McMurtrie?s posting about declining birds. The first thing is thanks, I think the post took courage and sometimes there?s a head-in-the-sand attitude about this subject.

The second, is our depression and our fatalism is the enemy of bird conservation, and blaming population growth feeds a depressive kind of fatalism. We drove the Labrador Duck extinct when there were only 50 million people living in the US. If we had a population of Labs back now, do you doubt we could hold on to them? It wasn?t that there were 50 million people, it was that there were 50 million people who didn?t love Labrador Ducks.

Also, the destruction we see now far exceeds the growth of the population. Biofuels are a perfect, horrible example of this in that they are exponentially increasing the human agricultural footprint at the worst time possible, and then essentially wasting the production from that land so that millions of humans are newly starving. They are likely the biggest threat to all of nature and in particular the wintering grounds of US migratory birds at this moment, as well as the breeding grounds of declining prairie birds. It should be remembered that they were ushered in with the active support of many green groups including WEC here at home and serenaded by lovely puff-pieces from an Archer Daniels Midland-supported NPR.

Let?s get mad, not depressed, and let?s keep looking for birds and be delighted when we still find them, and call people out, like Seattle Parks Dept. that is destroying our last best city frog & Bullock's Oriole habitat in Magnuson Park, when we don?t. Cheers.





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