This triple threat of ace birders will attempt to top all other competitors by identifying the greatest number of bird species by sight or sound in a midnight-to-midnight birding blitz. Their ultimate goal is to raise $25,000 that will be matched by a donor and is earmarked for support of undergraduate research in ornithology and conservation.
During this so-called "Big Day" one Redheads squad will bird the entire state of New Jersey, another will scour the length and breadth of Cape May County and the third will participate in the "Big Stay" category, tallying their birds from a single location within a 17-foot radius.
Past Cornell Lab student teams have been highly successful in the Cape May County division, earning first or second place every year since they began competing in 2007 and earning more than $100,000 in donations for The Redheads Fund.
Grants from the fund have gone toward everything from geo-tracking work on Whimbrels in the Arctic to tropical bird studies in Ecuador and even the discovery of a new species, the Sira Barbet in Peru.
Keep track of all three Redheads teams during scouting and during the race to the finish line on May 10 on the team's Facebook page. To make a contribution to help the students, visit their Indiegogo fundraising site: http://igg.me/at/redheadfund.
Redheads State Team: Hope Batcheller, Ben Barkley, Benjamin Van Doren, Brendan Fogarty, Andy Johnson, Luke Seitz
Redheads County Team: Eric Gulson, Graham Montgomery, David Weber, Tim Healy, Teresa Pegan
Redheads "Big Stay" Team: Drew Dreelin, Eric Sibbald, Mary Margaret Ferraro, Nathaniel Hernandez
Contact:
Pat Leonard, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, (607) 254-2137, pel27@cornell.edu
