Get ready for a Big Fun Morning as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Club’s first Big Day in 2012. We will bird from 5 am (if your team wants to do some owling) and quit at noon. We will bird at ONE site. This keeps us relatively “green” by not wasting fuel and keeps us outside and avoiding carpooling, in case there’s another variant headed our way. We’ll meet for lunch afterwards at Hidden Lake - we’ve got the picnic shelter reserved all day, and plan to have food arrive by 1 pm.
How can you participate? There are a couple of ways!
1. Volunteer to be a Captain, who communicates with a team of four, one of which has to be a club member. The Captain is responsible for coordinating the team’s meeting time, downloading a DBC checklist to keep track of species, teaching about birding if there are new birders on the team, and making sure the team follows the rules and has a great time! Compete to earn prizes for: Most Species, Best Bird, Worst Missed Bird, Most Species at a Big Sit, Most Species for a Biking Team, and others. Register your team with Vicky at VSroczynski@comcast.net
2. Don’t want to be a Captain, but want to be on a team? If you are new to the club or have a group of two-three friends let me know we’ll put you on a good team.
RULES
All teams must have a name. Team members, stay in direct voice contact and travel together as a group at your site. Or, set up a BIG SIT at a member’s yard or preserve. All members must see/hear the bird you count towards your species total. (95% of the species reported must be seen/heard by the whole team.) Work together; help everyone succeed.
Captains: before the Big Morning, have a group session-email, Zoom meeting, meeting or conference call to set up a plan, a start time, snack break, and meeting place (car placement–don’t carpool on site if you’re not comfortable). Scouting your site ahead of time is optional.
Stay within DuPage County, at public lands like forest preserves, places allowing public access like Cantigny or the Arboretum, or member’s yards. A site can have more than one team birding.
Don’t use recordings to attract birds, or a laser to point out birds, or flush birds on purpose. Pishing is fine.
Bird between 5 am and noon. If your team doesn’t want to go owling, and sleeps in instead, that’s fine!
If any team finds a super rarity, please text Vicky at 630-297-9512 and she’ll get the word out.
HIDDEN LAKE is on Route 53 north of the Morton Arboretum and .25 mile south of 56. The entrance is on the east side of 53, and the picnic shelter is a little north of the entrance. Read up on this preserve’s colorful history here.
Please RSVP to Vicky Sroczynski at VSroczynski@comcast.net by May 25th, 2022 if you would like to serve as CAPTAIN, and if you have a team and name, or would simply like to join a team.
Questions? Please e-mail Vicky or call her at 630-297-9512.