Mike Stiles
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Carbonless Birding
by Mike Stiles
In late December of 2007, Richard Gregson from Quebec proposed the idea of a Big Green Birding Year or BGBY (pronounced Bigby). The rules were simple . . . see how many birds one could find from home or place of work without using fossil fuels, self-propelled, either by biking or walking.
I would say that most birders have a keen interest in the natural world, and those who have been at it a long time are acutely aware of the price some birds have paid for human intervention. Habitat loss, pollution, and the outright reduction or elimination of certain species are noticeable facts, so the green birding idea was embraced heartily by hundreds of birders from around the world. We hope our carbon free birding can offset some of our guilt for jumping into cars or onto a plane to chase a rare bird.
Not only is it great exercise to get out into your local area by bike or by foot, but it allows you to slow down and really discover your surrounding areas. You begin to realize that it's not always necessary to drive all over the county to see the rare bird or to get big numbers of species for the day. It even surprises most beginning birders how many types of birds will visit their own backyard if they just watch long enough. I recently led a walking big day field trip for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival and we ended the day with 85 species. Some of the other big day field trips, driving up and down the coast in a van, only had 15 or so more birds than we did.
A local birder, Jim Royer, has certainly embraced the concept. He can often be seen bicycling around the county, his scope tied to the back rack, his panniers sometimes loaded with camping gear to spend the night somewhere. In 2008 he found 262 species of birds and ranged from San Simeon to Oso Flaco Lake.
Jim is on a quest this year to see over 300 species of birds in San Luis Obispo County and beyond. He plans on multi-day trips this year as far east as the Carrizo Plain and Kern County. He's certainly off to a good start with 122 birds on New Year's Day. As of this writing (mid-January), he already has 158 birds for the year, and has ridden his bike nearly 190 miles. His BPM (bird per mile) rating is quite good. You can follow his adventures on his "Green Birding in Central California" blog.
He also organizes a green birding event called the Big Sit, where birds are counted from inside a 17-foot diameter circle. One year, the total for the group from the Elfin Forest Overlook in Los Osos was 122 species, and was the highest count among all big sit locations around the world.
There are several categories that birders can choose to participate in, including a big green year, a walking only bigby, a big green day, and others. I have chosen to limit my green bird list to those I see on foot only. I hope this year to break my 2008 number of 202 birds.
The highest bigby year reported is held by Josiah Clarke and Andy Kleinhesselink from San Francisco with 295 birds from their bicycles. Sixteen-year-old Neil Gilbert from Orange County ended 2009 with 283 birds seen. But the ultimate big year (although not in a calendar year) was done by Malkolm Boothroyd, a high school student, who pedaled from the Yukon Territory to Florida. He and his family biked over 13,000 miles, saw 534 bird species, and also raised money for bird conservation projects in several countries.
So if you're wondering what you can do for the environment . . . get off the couch, don't touch the car keys, and "put your money where your feet are."
February 12-15 is the Great Backyard Bird Count.
Count the birds in your backyard or neighborhood and enter them online.
Thanks go to Jim Royer for information for this article. See his blog (mentioned above) for information and links to other green birding web pages and blogs, and visit the original BGBY site.
Burrowing Owl on banner by Kevin Cole. |
