Everyone is invited to join the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia and Mountaineer Audubon for the first Morgantown Birding Cup, which will be held from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday.
This is a friendly competition; the goal is for families and individuals to have fun and get out bird watching in their own backyards or other places within walking distance from where they live. Count all the bird species you encounter during this 24-hour period.
Originally, the Morgantown Birding Cup was to be a team-based event as well as a fundraiser for the West Virginia Young Birders Club, which is operated as a project of the ACCA. Because of necessary changes to the event, fundraising will not be the goal; the goal will be to have fun and learn about the birds that live near you.
WVU students can log iServe hours for participating in the Morgantown Birding Cup, which is listed on iserve.wvu.edu as a volunteer need.
Revised Morgantown Birding Cup guidelines
-“Teams” may only consist of individuals or members of the same household.
-A team’s count area must be within walking distance of where they live.
-A team’s count area must be in one of the five West Virginia counties in Mountaineer Audubon’s region: Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor.
-Count all the species you encounter between 6pm on Friday, May 15, and 6pm on Saturday, May 16.
-Register ahead of time by emailing Katie Fallon: katie@accawv.org. Registration is free.
Email your bird list to Fallon no later than 6:15 p.m. Saturday. You can keep your list on eBird.org or using another method of your choosing. By submitting your list to eBird, you will be also participating in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s global citizen-science initiative. Additionally, eBird can help you identify the birds you see by sight and sound, as well as provide information about where birds have been previously reported.
Fallon will invite registered participants to a Zoom meeting that will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday. You do not have to participate in the Zoom meeting to participate in the Birding Cup, but the winners will be announced during the meeting.
There’s no fee to participate and no expectation of donations. Just have fun and count the birds near you. For more info: www.wvybc.org/birding-cup/.
The Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia and Mountaineer Audubon are local 501c3 nonprofit organizations.
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