Last night we wrapped up Birdathon, our 5-week celebration of spring migration in Central Texas, with a Flappy Hour at Austin Beerworks. As Travis Audubon supporters enjoyed drinks and food—we highly recommend Austin Beerworks’ fries, by the way—Executive Director Mashariki Cannon and Development Manager Lisa Ramie announced the results of Birdathon, including the winners of Birding Brawl.
Executive Director Mashariki Cannon welcomes the crowd at our May 19th Flappy Hour.
For those who are new to Birdathon, it is a multi-pronged fundraiser for Travis Audubon, complete with a birding competition, free bird walks, paid excursions to birding hotspots, and even a photography contest. This year, we raised $42,000, all of which goes right back into Travis Audubon’s programs. Forty-percent of the money raised came from registrations to 25 birding trips led by our volunteers. Over three hundred birders joined us for those trips, some traveling as far as The Nature Conservancy’s Davis Mountains Preserve for a three-day trip. Please give a hand to our 30 volunteer trip leaders:
Our amazing peer-to-peer fundraisers
Another 30% of donations to Birdathon were thanks to our 53 peer-to-peer fundraisers, including nine fundraising teams: Fisher Hollow Goldies, Gone Pishing, The Independence Flock, Masterful Birders, The Screech-Owls, Brawling Bristols, Team Nuthatch, I got birds at high places, and South Austin Starlings. This year, we gave out awards for the most successful peer-to-peer fundraisers. Our winners are:
- Wendy Harte, for Most Funds Raised by an Individual, with $3,670 raised
- Gone Pishing, for Most Funds Raised by a Team, with $12,490 raised
Thanks to our corporate sponsors
We also want to extend a big thank-you to our corporate sponsors for Birdathon: Custom4Good.com, Eldorado Cafe, and Vortex. We raffled off a pair of Vortex binoculars at the beginning of Birdathon, and Custom4Good.com will be creating calendars featuring entries from our Greg Lasley Photography Contest. Speaking of the photography contest, our esteemed judges are in the process of selecting our winners as we speak—going through a whopping 185 entries from 24 people—and we will announce the winners in mid- to late June.
Drum roll, please!
Without further ado, here are the winners of this year’s Birding Brawl. This is the side of Birdathon where you can compete to see as many birds as possible in a 24-hour period. You can compete solo or on a team with your birding buddies.
We had fierce competition this year, with four very talented teams in the running: the Brawling Bristols, Gone Pishing, the Masterful Birders, and the South Austin Starlings. All four teams birded outside Travis County for their competition day, with most choosing the Upper Texas coast as their location. The Brawling Bristols, Gone Pishing, and the Masterful Birders all did a full day of birding, while the South Austin Starlings did a half day. Here are the results!
Winner: Full Day, Traveling
Gone Pishing: 145 species, with their rarest bird as the American Flamingo. Congrats to everyone on the team:
Jimma Byrd
Shannon Davies
Shelia Hargis
Wendy Harte
Pamella Hopper
Britta Huckabee
Cheryl McGrath
Susanne Ross
Michael Sims
Louise Smyth
Runner-ups:
Masterful Birders: 130 species, with their rarest bird as the American Barn Owl
Brawling Bristols: 103 species, with their rarest bird as the Golden-cheeked Warbler
Winner: Half Day, Traveling
South Austin Starlings: 99 species, with their rarest bird as the American Flamingo. Congrats to everyone on the team:
Matthew Law
Richard Deulofeut
Shelia Hargis and Matthew Law did an excellent job as team captions of Gone Pishing and the South Austin Starlings, respectively. We hope that you and your teams enjoy the trip to Pecan Springs Karst Preserve led by Rich Kostecke.
Let’s do it again next year, y’all!
