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 **************************************************************** 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------- Web based archives and subscription management are available at: http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html ****************************************************************