Birds are incredible. Their power to inspire and amaze brings people
together across every imaginable boundary. Global Big Day is the embodiment
of this worldwide connectedness: a single day to celebrate birds in every
place on Earth. On 5 May, Global Big Day, 28,000 people ventured outside in
170 countries, finding 6,899 species: two-thirds of the world's bird
species in one day. This is a new world record for birding and more birds
seen by the Global Big Day team than any one person has ever seen in an
entire year.

From the Pied-billed Grebe reported by Jim Osborn at 5:15 AM to the
Virginia Rail found by David Hof at 10:15 PM, here in Vermont, hundreds of
birders helped to track down 173 species while submitting 534 complete
checklists during the Global Big Day. Incredibly, David Hof had 121 species
(70% of the total species found), showing the impact that each of us can
have. Explore the data yourself on Vermont eBird
<https://ebird.org/vt/region/US-VT?yr=BIGDAY_2018a&changeDate=Set> and see
what we accomplished together. Thank you, and congratulations on a great
day of birding.

Importantly, this impossibly fun event also provides valuable information
to help the birds we all care about. On May 5th, eBirders gathered more
than *1.6 million* bird sightings from around the globe, which are now
freely available to researchers and conservationists. As a global birding
team, together we can gather information on where, when, and how birds make
us of the landscape and we can use that information to aid conservation and
research that can help keep birds around. And the best part? We can all
have fun doing it.

Read more at Vermont eBird:
https://ebird.org/vt/news/global-big-day-2018-a-birding-world-record

____________________________

Kent McFarland
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
PO Box 420 | Norwich, Vermont 05055
802.649.1431 x201
@KPMcFarland

<http://vtecostudies.org/>


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