Jim Wright, who keeps this blog, also writes a twice-monthly Meadowlands nature column for the South Bergenite. His latest is on the Meadowlands Big Year competition:
This year marked the first-ever “Big Year’ competition in the Meadowlands — a contest for birding enthusiasts to see how many species they could see in the district during this calendar year. Although 2012 is not over quite yet, one thing is clear: the Big Year has been a big hit.
All 11 participants (including me) have already seen more than 100 species in the Meadowlands, and two participants have seen more than 200 species. Now that’s a lot of birds!
Since the goal of the Big Year was not only to encourage folks to do more bird-watching closer to home in the Meadowlands but also to highlight the wide range of amazing birds we have here, I have to say “mission accomplished.”
I recently asked participants what their “best” bird was so far, and the variety of the replies gives you an idea of the wide range of birds we have been seeing.
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