Blueprint for a New Jersey “Big Day” by Pete Dunne wenty-six years ago, I thought that Sure, you can go it alone, but Big Day’s go Ta Big Day – a 24-hour birding marathon – better with chums. was a frivolous exercise. I couldn’t see why Your team mates should be people who something that was as fun as birding are as serious (or as frivolous) about needed to be turned into a game. birding as you are. People who don’t mind Then, with the goal of raising money for sitting ham to ham in a back seat of a car New Jersey Audubon, I did a Big Day...and for hours on end. Team mates who make include: Canadian Zone woodlands, I was hooked – lock, stock, and binocular light of having bags of potato chips Hemlock groves, Spruce/White Pine barrel. I discovered that not only was doing upended in their laps. Team mates who Get plantings, freshwater marshes, Northern a Big Day exciting, it was a celebration of won’t start every conversation after 8:00 deciduous forest, grasslands, Southern New Jersey’s natural riches. AM with “I told you we should have...” hooked... hardwood swamps, pine barrens, estuar- Every year since 1984, the World In other words, what you want is a lock, ies and tidal marshes, barrier beach, Series of Birding has given me an excuse cadre of cheerful, enthusiastic, Teflon ocean, and bay. to spend hours in the field, scouting, and coated Ghandi’s in your quorum. stock, growing familiar with the nuances of the What’s a quorum? Three to four seems P.S. Don’t forget a migrant trap (forested state. It has improved my birding skills and to be about right. Fewer than this and birds and pockets, hemmed in by water or urban brought me to some higher understanding get missed. More than this and it becomes environs that attract migrants). In fact, if of Big Day strategy. increasingly difficult getting all team binocular you can, incorporate two traps (the more If you are about to engage in your first members onto a bird. space between them, the better). It often World Series of Birding, you don’t need to It is also difficult getting more than four barrel. happens that migratory fallouts blanket one read this article to see a bunch of birds. individuals into a car after all the food is part of the state and totally miss another. Just garner your pledges from co-workers stowed. and friends on the birds you hope to see. If you have one or more friends that you 3. TIME AND PLACE(S) Get up early on B-Day. Head out to your already bird with, you have the nucleus of The shortest distance between points is favorite birding patch. Start counting. a team. If you want to add one or more a straight line. The shorter the line, the But, if you want to maximize your time individuals, consider drafting somebody more time you can spend birding and the in the field and gather all the avian riches whose skill levels compliment the team, or less time driving. the Garden State has to offer, and raise somebody who can add a geographic If George Orwell were to summarize, he lots of money for the cause of your edge (i.e., someone who is intimate with might say “BIRD TIME GOOD. TRAVEL choice (including New Jersey some bird rich hotspots in a part of the TIME, BAD.” Audubon), then you are going to need a state you are not familiar with). Pick stops with care. If you plot a good, plan. Here are my suggestions, a blueprint fundamental route – one that links key for a New Jersey Big Day, (offered by one 2. ROUTE habitats along major roadways – you won’t World Series birder to another). Critical to any Big Day is route — a set have to go miles out of your way to pick up of key birding points linked by a line. a needed bird or two. A route that needs to 1. PICK YOUR TEAM MATES Central to your route is your selection of be subsidized with 10-minute detours is WITH CARE sites. They should be chosen to incorpo- not a good route. The most important consideration on rate a diversity of habitats along the By and large, no single bird is worth any Big Day is choosing the person or shortest possible line. more than 10-minutes effort during prime persons you are going to share it with. Why a diversity of habitats? Because birding time; 20-minutes in the middle different bird species choose to be in different habitats. In New Jersey, these key habitats Continued on next page Blueprint for a New Jersey “BIG DAY” Continued of the day. If you decide you must take a side trip, try and make it worth the effort. Try and locate two or more needed birds at your destination or one on the way to that site. REMEMBER. You have 24-hours. It’s not a lot of time to map a state. It goes without saying that your route will be closely linked to a schedule – a time table – that balances bird Yellow-throated Warbler, and Summer found during your hours of scouting. time and travel time. Tanager (Southern Pine forests). By and large, the most productive scouting Even veteran teams with well-defined Pick your sites. Make a shopping list of will be had the week leading up to the event. routes find it difficult to stay on schedule. species you expect to find there. BOLD FACE That is when most resident species will be on There is a big temptation to spend “just a few those birds that are must gets! Keep your territory; this is when lingering birds stand the more minutes” looking for JUST THAT BIRD. list up as you move from site to site. This way, best chance of sticking for the Big Day. DON’T! The way to add species to your list if you are missing a key species after leaving a Earlier scouting (before the leaves are on the is to add habitats. The way to really chop site, you’ll have time to do something about it. trees) will help you pinpoint territorial birds of species off your list is to have to cut habitats I remember one Big Day when our team prey. But the closer you are to the Big Day, the at the end of your day because you ran out got to South Jersey before we discovered more your scouting efforts will pay off particu- of time. that we’d missed Swamp Sparrow. Easy to larly for migrants. Some teams do full or partial dry runs of find in Northern marshes, Swamp Sparrows Migrants are fickle and opportunistic. They go their routes before the Big Day, keeping are all but absent in the South in mid-May. where the food goes and insect rich pockets schedules that are down to the minute. Other change year to year. That’s the bad news. The teams are more flexible but still plot schedules 5. BACK UP! good news is that when a pocket is found, it that incorporate time allotted for birding and Hard to get species are just that. You will usually remains productive. Birds that have the time it will take to get from one point to discover that Kingfishers that always sit on found an insect rich belt of flowering oak trees another. “that” island will be sitting somewhere else on linger. New arrivals, seeing all the feeding One thing you might want to do in planning the day of the World Series of Birding. Don’t activity, drop in and stay. your Big Day is leave an hour buffer. It’s great trust to chance. For all uncommon, or fickle, or My suggestion – three to five days before the insurance when you are running late (which difficult to find species, pinpoint two or three Big Day, check out breeding sites and tie down you almost certainly will) and (in case you are (or four, or five) back up locations along your hard-to-get species. Two to three days before on schedule) it gives you the flexibility to cash route. the event, check out lakes, and ponds, and in on some unexpected opportunity (like a How do you know where to find back up bays, and channels for lingering water birds major migratory fallout) or to chase down birds along your route? Easy. You go... (then keep your fingers crossed that they stick). misses on your list at the end of the day. 6. SCOUTING 7. BASIC GAME PLAN 4. NOT ALL BIRDS ARE EQUAL This may be the best part of the World FULL STATE will always be a work in All birds count as one on a Big Day, but Series of Birding. In the days (even weeks) progress. Back in the 1920’s, when Charles uncounted birds count zero. Some species, ahead of the event, go out to prospective Urner was plotting and scheming the ultimate owing to reduced numbers, or restricted birding sites and check out prospective little route, a Big Day might start at Troy Meadows distributions, or their secretive nature, are pockets along your route. “Tie Down” birds on for rails and bitterns, move on to the hills harder to find than others. territory (like Pileated Woodpecker and above Boonton for warblers, then on to the A key consideration in the selection of Warbling Vireo) and check out lakes and Watchung Ridge...the Elizabeth Marshes..