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/> To post messages, send e-mail to: [log in to unmask] Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages. To contact the list owner: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe: E-mail this command to [log in to unmask] UNSUBSCRIBE UV-Birders To change your e-mail address: E-mail this command from your old address to: [log in to unmask] CHANGE UV-Birders [new e-mail address] Web based archives and subscription management are available at: http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html