It was really fun and strangely exciting to read Charlie Wright's description of his big day adventuring with Michael and the two Ryans. The old state record of 201 has now stood for 22 years and records are made to be broken. This is clearly a group talented
enough and foolish enough to be able to do that! However bird totals for this kind of thing are a bit like the Richter Scale so the magnitude of difficulty seems to go up exponentially for each bird found above 190 when you are balancing time against miles against species left available. So if I may I would like to make a few suggestions:
Is there a sufficiently strong rationale for not taking the traditional route starting in the east,Dodson Rd, Wenas, White Pass,Hoquiam Ocean Shores? I have to say that as I just came back from Dodson, ducks were hard to find, no Eared Grebes and I could not find a Wilson's Phalarope with all the water and all the plant infilling. But it does seem that this route might have better quicker roads and the potential for more birds, even though Klickitat County is everyone's favourite place.
All the Flying Fauna trips also drove around 750, averaged 198 species and finished by 8-8.30pm when we just ran out of available birds. I am concerned that you have a driver to meet you and bring you all home safely to your people. This was a stipulation of the Seattle Audubon Society Birdathon.
I would also like to hope that you might use the occasion to raise money for an Audubon Society of your choice or even WOS (for scholarships?) If such were the case, I would be prepared to release copies of our Big Day timetable, which apart from Bill Tweit's continued brilliance was the secret to our success.
Lastly a note of optimism/ realism. Everything depends on the weather at Ocean Shores. On the Flying Faunas first venture into hyperspace, we arrived into Hoquiam really early. Given good weather and number of common birds left available, we were estimating a probable final total between 207 and 212. Of course the weather turned out to be the pits!! So but there is still wiggle room beyond out totals. Good luck and best wishes. Drive carefully and remember people care about you! Dave








David Hutchinson, Owner
Flora & Fauna: Nature Books
Discovery Gardens: Native Plants
3212 W.Government Way
Seattle,WA.98199
http://www.ffbooks.net/
206-623-4727



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