With August now upon us and early southbound migrants already filtering 
through Vermont, it's time to revive the County Quest!  July was a quiet 
month for most of us, with the fewest checklists (1007) and number of 
individual birds (44,693) so far reported on Vermont eBird during 2011.  
That should change dramatically this month, as we head back out to our 
favorite haunts to intercept post-breeding dispersers and fall transients.

Some brief perspective to highlight the tremendous response to the 
County Quest, as measured by eBird:

Through 31 July of this year, 14,786 checklists have been submitted to 
Vermont eBird, documenting 1,029,384 individuals of 273 species.  This 
essentially doubled totals from the same period in 2010, when 7,667 
checklists were logged with 452,410 individuals (afraid I can't figure 
out how to determine total # species...).   Impressive!

Although Addison County maintains a respectable overall lead, with 225 
species http://www.vtecostudies.org/quest/birdreport.html, the county 
"race" is far from settled, with 5 months still to go.  Four counties 
have broken the 200 species mark, while 7 others have exceeded 150.  The 
Quest organizers confess to being remiss in not having settled on a 
reasonable handicap system yet -- we've been too busy birding -- but we 
won't shirk our duties much longer on that.

It will be hard to top this past May for birding excitement in the Upper 
Valley, but there are plenty of species not yet reported to eBird that 
are reasonable August candidates.  A few tantalizing possibilities: 
Black-crowned Night-Heron, Golden Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, White-rumped 
and Baird's sandpiper, Common Nighthawk (a good bet!), maybe even 
Connecticut Warbler.

Time to grab a birding friend or two, revive the competitive juices, and 
shoot for 300 species and 30,000 eBird checklists statewide!

The County Quest Team

-- 
Chris Rimmer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
P.O. Box 420
Norwich, VT 05055
802-649-1431 ext. 1
http://www.vtecostudies.org

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