Leap into BBA3!
How many birds have you seen on February 29? It only comes around once every four years, so finding your ‘leap birds’ can be a fun challenge—especially since it takes place in mid-winter when we are still counting down the days to spring migration.
The Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas 3 is holding a fundraising event, Leap into BBA3, on February 29, 2020. You can participate from your backyard, your county, or the whole region, but we hope you’ll be able to make it to our get-together tally rally at 7:00 PM at Jailbreak Brewery in Laurel, Howard County (they have a full menu and delicious beer).
To get in on the fun, just go find some birds! At the tally rally, we will have some fun with finding ‘winners’—like who could find the most owls, the most ducks, the most individual birds, and of course, the classic ‘longest lists’—but the ultimate goal is to meet your fellow atlasers and enjoy a fun spin on your birding. Feel free to head out on your own, or round up your pals to form a team. And we’d love to see your results on social media—just include the hashtag #mddcbba3.
You’ll need to submit your checklists to eBird (this is good practice for the Atlas!), and there’s a $10 entry fee for each participant payable online to the Maryland Ornithological Society. Just select “Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas 3” and write “Leap Day” in the comment field. If you can’t make the tally rally but would still like your observations included, email your eBird checklists to mddcbba3@mdbirding.org with the subject line “Leap into BBA3 Checklist Submission” (or similar).
You should also feel free to sponsor a team! Pledge an amount per bird (we recommend $0.29, since, ya know, it’s leap day!) and donate the total to the Atlas once the team’s final results are in. For example, if your chosen team, the Bald Seagulls, sees 100 species, you would donate $29 to the Atlas (100 species x $0.29).
While attendance at the tally rally is not required to participate, we hope you can make it out there!
Jailbreak has a full menu, and is located at 9445 Washington Blvd N, STE F Laurel, MD 20723.
Here are the ‘technical’ rules for the birding portion of this event:
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- Birds must be seen on February 29, 2020 (midnight to midnight)
- Observations must be submitted to eBird
- Email eBird checklists to mddcbba3@mdbirds.org with the subject line “Leap into BBA3 Checklist Submission”
- A participation fee of $10 for each participant must be paid to Maryland Ornithological Society with a comment tagging it for the Leap Day event
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