GLOBAL BIG DAY – 9th May!!!

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/globalbigday/gbdregional/

"Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA is co-ordinating a Global Big Day on Saturday 9 May 2015 to see how many species can be seen in one day around the world.

How many birds can be seen in a single day around the world? That's the idea behind the Global Big Day effort being co-ordinated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, USA. For more than 30 years, Cornell's Team Sapsucker has been doing Big Days (24-hour bird races) to raise money for conservation and support its eBird data logging system, equivalent to the British Trust for Ornithology's BirdTrack scheme.

Previous years have seen 294 species recorded in Texas, and the 'El Gigante' which combined Arizona and California for 275 species. In addition to these North American bird races, Cornell's team also had a great time at the Champions of the Flyway event in Israel in 2014.

To celebrate Cornell Lab's centennial in 2015, it has decided to make some changes to the Big Day — most importantly to expand the team worldwide. It is inviting everyone around the world to try to see as many species as possible on a single calendar day. Are 3,000 species possible? 4,000? More? Could participants document half the species in the world? No-one knows, but that's what will make it fun. For birds to count, all you need to do is enter them into eBird. Mark your calendars for Saturday 9 May 2015 for the first ever Global Big Day, which also happens to be on International Migratory Bird Day."