CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) – The teenagers from Vermont and New Hampshire started looking and listening for bird species at midnight, and didn’t stop counting until time ran out 24 hours later.
After attending an awards ceremony Sunday to mark the end of the national World Series of Birding competition, there was just one thing the group wanted to do before heading back – some more birdwatching.
“We’ve been eating, drinking, living, sleeping birds down here,” said Chip Darmstadt, who coaches both the Twin State Tanagers and the Vermont Redstarts.
The two teams that participated in the national competition sponsored by the New Jersey Audubon Society had to spot as many bird species as they could by sight or sound between midnight Friday and midnight Saturday.
Ninety-five percent of the birds had to be identified by the entire team, and their coach verified the listings.
The Redstarts finished fourth out of six teams in their age bracket. The fifth- through eighth-graders identified 108 bird species, while the winning team in their division found 130 of them.
The Redstarts continued their search into the competition’s final hour – spotting a snow goose at 11 p.m. Saturday with the help of a flashlight.
The high school team, the Twin State Tanagers, spotted 156 species and took third place, just 10 birds behind first-place honors.
It was the first trip to the national birding competition for about half the participants from Vermont and New Hampshire. “It’s extremely exhausting, but a lot of fun,” Darmstadt said. “The kids have a great time; everyone learns a tremendous amount and sees a lot of birds.”
The 11 participants and their coach planned to return home Monday, but not until they spent some more time birding in the area Sunday afternoon.
Darmstadt said the trip gave the group a chance to identify some birds they had not seen before, and to spot even a few that are rare in New Jersey.
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like the white ibis and the lark sparrow.
“They saw many, many new birds so they were very excited,” said Darmstadt, who is director of the VINS North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier.
AP-ES-05-11-03 1626EDT
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