Good to hear from you Julian. Its always nice to find out a little about
fellow striver's activities.
>From personal experience, the process of adjustment to retirement will peak
in intensity for you about 1501 on 25/4/14. This will coincide with a
sharp decrease in relevance of other concepts such as 'weekend' or
'holiday'.
My bird-a-day routine got off to a good start with a number of unusual
birds turning up in the Canberra Region in Summer-Autumn. A few short
trips away have also helped keeping the meter ticking over and I have still
got most of my savers intact. (I have seen a few of the US people
commenting how '3 weeks in Costa Rica' saved their bacon. A Canberra
colleague said he wasn't going to participate as the travel would be too
expensive!)
In terms of the geographic distribution of the other participants it is
very noticeable that many of the US based folk come from Florida: based on
one twitch it appeared that several off them live in the same suburb!
Looking at Russell Woodford's recent additions it is tempting to say he
should also be included under 'Singapore'!
I think I'll get through April quite easily but May is looking daunting. I
have found the process great fun and will certainly fire up again next
year. Assuming that I have flunked from the formal game by 1 July I intend
to start my own version then to see how close to December I can get: at
least it will be simple to tick the first return of of a species than
deciding which day to score a potentially departing migrant.
Martin Butterfield
Martin Butterfield
http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
On 13 April 2014 08:06, Julian Bielewicz <> wrote:
> Greetings All
>
> A little late in the coming but I am in the process of adjusting to life
> as a retired, rather than an active, teacher and my timing remains somewhat
> askew. I should be near perfect by 1500 hours [3pm] on Friday 25 April
> [ANZAC Day] 2014, the date of my "official" retirement; given the summer
> vacation and long-service leave I haven't actually been in a classroom
> since mid-December 2013.
>
> For those involved in Trey Mitchell's BIRD-A-DAY challenge, last Thursday
> [when this should have been posted] was something of at least a minor
> landmark - the 100th day of the year, 100 different species seen on each
> day of 2014. Yes, a gimmick and while I don't usually involve myself in
> birding gimmicks I needed a laugh to herald in my approaching dotage.
>
> As of yesterday [102 birds] there are four of us [Australians] running to
> form, another two [including Russell Woodford who made something of a
> dramatic comeback onto the lists] are currently only one bird behind but
> that almost undoubtedly means that they yet to register their bird for
> Saturday. A further two challengers stand on 100 birds with another four
> Australians toting scores in the 90s.
>
> On global terms, Mike Hooper of Singapore continues to rule the roost -
> always assuming that the top, left-hand spot equates to Numero Uno in the
> competition. It is perhaps interesting to note that four of the six
> challengers around the world currently sporting 102 birds are Australians
> [Eleanor Marr of Florida being the other 102-er].
>
> Mind you, the global composition of the challengers is perhaps worthy of a
> comment. In essence, BIRD-A-DAY appears to be fundamentally an America vs
> Australia affair - with a few anomalies thrown in for good measure. There
> is only one UK entrant, Roy Filleul of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands;
> the afore-mentioned Mike Hooper is the sole Singaporean entrant, indeed,
> the sole Asian entrant while clicking on "Canada" produces nothing. No
> Kiwis, no South Africans or other Europeans.
>
> Who will still be there on 19 July, the 200th day, the 200th different
> bird?
>
> Cheers
>
> Julian
>
> P.S. those of you kind enough to have followed my inane ramblings through
> Allen Road, Birding the South Burnett and even Birding Beyond the Pale [all
> now asleep] might like to follow the relentless drivel via Birder at Large:
>
> http://osprey2014.wordpress.com/
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