Big Green Day

Last Monday a good birding friend and I took the Big Green Day challenge, which is to see how many distinct species that we can find during one day without using any motorized transport, ie., human powered. Mostly we walked around good sites and then used our bikes to get to the next one, which of course limited our scope.We chose to stay centered in the Goleta valley and began with more riparian and lake species in the morning, and then went over to Devereux Slough and the ocean for the water and shore birds. It turned out to be quite enjoyable, we detected 114 species, which I was quite happy with considering that we were still a bit early in the migration season and that very high onshore winds at the beach limited the seawatch considerably. The challenge is not only to see or hear birds, but to get your team member to see or hear it as well (and agree on the proper ID!). This introduces yet another skillset of staying close and attuned to your teammate and describing what you are seeing as efficiently and accurately as possible. Our competitive total was 112, which means that only 2 birds were detected (in both cases, heard by one and not by the other), an excellent percentage.
Our best, most unusual birds were a pair of Yellow-headed Blackbirds at the corner of Los Carneros and Mesa Rd, and a beautiful breeding-plumaged Ruddy Turnstone at Goleta Point. At fading light getting a single satisfying look at a migrant Vaux's Swift was a nice last bird to get.
—I have to interrupt this post due to a Pacific-slope Flycatcher coming into the neighbor's apricot tree. This is only the second one we have ever had at our house during spring migration—
It will be interesting to see how other teams fare around the country and the world. We'll probably make it an annual event to compete with ourselves and to maximize planning as much as anything.