Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The full ABC results are in!!!

Chicago and Cook County got beaten by a bunch of scrubs in Texas, but at least we beat crummy Lake County Illinois and their notorious evil genuis compiler, Walter W. Walters. Enough whining. Here is the e-mail announcing the winners from organizer Phil Pryde of San Diego:

Greetings to all! Here are the official results for the 2006 ABC/C competition! (Sorry about the late posting.)

Congratulations to Los Angeles, Corpus Christi, and all the other winners in the various categories!

Best, Phil Pryde

America’s Birdiest City and County Competition - 2006 results!

It took a while, but we now have all the results from the all the far-flung participants in the 2006 competition for the titles of America’s Birdiest City, and America’s Birdiest County. Here are this springs results, together with hearty congratulations to the 2006 winners in each category.

The overall City winner was Corpus Christi, with a new city record of 247 species (OK, Tex, we’re impressed!); the overall County winner was Los Angeles with 265. Also, special congratulations to the San Antonio folk, who on their first try came in first in two categories. Good work!

City Categories: City Species identified:

Large Coastal City Corpus Christi, TX 247
Large East Coast City New York, NY 193
Large West Coast City San Diego, CA 179
Large Inland City San Antonio, TX 195 [a]
Small Coastal City Dauphin Island, AL 170
Small Inland City Duluth, MN 147

County Categories: County Species identified:
Coastal County winner Los Angeles, CA 265 [b]
Coastal Gulf County Nueces County, TX 255
Coastal Atlantic County Richmond County, NY 160 [c]
Inland County winner Kern County, CA 247
Inland County, Central flyway Bexar County, TX 205 [d]
Inland County, Atlantic flyway (all Eastern entrants were coastal – big opportunity here!) [a]

Second place for a large inland city = Chicago with 172 species. [b] Second place for a coastal county = San Diego with 261 species. [c] Second place, Atlantic coast county = Kings (Brooklyn) at 157; third place was Washington County (Maine), with 152. [d] Second place in the hotly contested Inland County, Central flyway division was Cook County IL with 191; third place was St. Louis County, Minnesota with 189; and fourth was Lake County, IL, a first-time entrant, with 171.

A tip of the hat also to the many entrants who combine this competition with a fund-raising effort on behalf of local birding, nature study, or habitat conservation programs; we hope you all were highly successful in those efforts as well. Wherever possible, please try to use your results with the local news media to help promote habitat conservation activities in your local communities.

As most of you already know, this will be the last year that I’ll be coordinating the ABC/C competition. In 2007. the reins will be turned over to the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary committee, who have enthusiastically volunteered to carry on the ABC/C in the future. As noted, the contact there is Mike Wilson at Ylhammer1@cs.com. Thanks Mike, and everyone at Dauphin Island.

Congratulations again to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who has participated over the years. I’ve had a grand time working with the competition, and hope you have too.

Very best wishes and good birding, Phil Pryde, San Diego Audubon Society

4 comments:

Mike's Soap Box said...

I never heard of this "birdiest City" stuff until now. Who complies the species for St. Louis County Mn or Duluth, Mn. I do not get this competition at all can someone explain?

Thanks

Mike's Soap Box said...

cross out complies and add in compiles -- ooops I hate typing!

Bill Pulliam said...

Wow I'm amazed at how low those totals are in some categories, epecially Atlantic Coastal County. Those numbers are not that much higher than single-day, single-party birdathon and big day numbers for many places on the southeast coast. The competition must not have caught on there yet, or South Carolina and North Carolina would be beatin' the tar outta them mid-Atlantic counties!

Birding is NOT a crime!!!! said...

I don't know, Mike, get in touch with Phil Pryde and he can probably tell you.

I think that participation overall has been a bit random, but there are a few more entrants every year.