May 27, 1999
During a 24-hour trek across the state, the team recorded 206 species - one of the highest totals for North America. Higher counts have been recorded only in coastal states such as California, Texas and New Jersey, where the occurrence of shorebirds makes higher counts possible.
Mark Robbins, KU Natural History Museum collection manager for birds, and A. Townsend Peterson, curator of ornithology, led the May 13 excursion, called the Bird-a-thon, which is a fund-raiser for the museum's ornithology division.
The Bird-a-thon is part of a 29-year-old tradition of Big Days, bird-watching competitions governed by the American Birding Association. The association requires that each member of a Big Day team remain within hearing of all other members throughout the excursion and that all team members observe at least at least 95 percent of the species. The event must occur during a single calendar day.
Sebastian Patti of Chicago and Chris Hobbs of Bonner Springs joined Robbins and Peterson. The foursome began the day at midnight in Lawrence, where, among other species, they recorded two kinds of bird whose populations have seriously declined because of the loss of native prairie - the Greater Prairie Chicken and Henslow's Sparrow. After dawn, the team recorded 26 kinds of warblers and seven species of vireos in the Missouri River bottoms near Leavenworth.
The team then traveled west to Cheyenne Bottoms and the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, where they saw most of the water birds recorded that day. By the end of the day, the team had covered 525 miles.
Each year, the KU team solicits pledges from bird enthusiasts and other donors on a per-species basis. Funds raised during the Bird-a-thon help support graduate students' ornithological research and expeditions in South America.
Pledges are solicited in the weeks before the Bird-a-thon, but contributions are still welcome.
For more information or to make a contribution, call Mark Robbins at (785) 864-3657.