A Big Green Big Year (BIGBY) is a big year in which you list those species seen while not using fossil fuels or the internal combustion engine. (See:http://tinyurl.com/yf7bcqu)
I became interested in "green" birding by accident. Quite literally. A tumble down 15stairs in late 2007 left me with a broken arm that required surgery a year later. I was unable to drive, and even getting in and out of a car on the passenger side was painful. I soon grew tired of sitting in a chair watching the birds at my feeders. I was anxious to go birding again, even though my injury pretty much ruled out driving (and riding) to my usual birding sites.
A few weeks after my accident I heard about the BIGBY movement. I decided to do a BIGBY for 2008, walking through my neighborhood, the nearby Indiana University cross country (XC) course, and the wooded hills north of the XC course. I started with short walks, gradually increasing the distance as the pain in my arm subsided. By the end of 2008 I had tallied 161 BIGBY species, which was more than I’d expected. As 2009 began, I set a goal of 170 species. By the end of the year my 2009 BIGBY count stood at 184 species.
I'm in the process of writing an essay about my 2009 green birding experiences, which I will share on this blog when I'm done. In the meantime, I thought I'd point to a series of brief BIGBY articles that I wrote for the local Audubon Society chapter newsletter:
In My Backyard: Big Green Big Year Satisfies. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 5.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-01.pdf
Big Green Big Year — 2008 Summary of Four Experiences. The Leaflet (newsletter). March/April 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 6.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-03.pdf
Big Green Big Year 2009: It’s All About Location, Location, Location. The Leaflet (newsletter). July/August 2009. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2009/Leaflet2009-07.pdf
Green Birding 2009. The Leaflet (newsletter). January/February 2010. ARTICLE ON PAGE 8.
http://www.sassafrasaudubon.org/leaflet_archive/2010/Leaflet2010-01.pdf
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment