In various iterations the patch birding or radius type challenge has been around for awhile, I think originating with the ‘slightly’ overly complex Patchwork Challenge, in the UK.
I never really played it because it required you to be in the UK obviously (which I hardly ever was), and there were so many score variations; do you live inland or coastal, separate parts of the country divided up, rarities scored different points somewhat arbitrarily depending on self-found vs twitched, and where they turned up.
So kudos to Jen Sanford for taking the initiative and getting the birding community behind a simpler one: The 5MR. A simple 5 mile radius from your home.
I’ve done this before - just for my own interest, rather than competitively (but I used kilometres so...... ;)
This original 5 mile circle got me 249 species over around 6 years - covering some of the finest toxic post-industrial wastelands of New Jersey and the southern part of Central Park through to lower Manhattan. And the Hudson River of course, which provided some megas - Cave Swallow being the best - somehow I got both the first and second county record of that. Go figure.
Here my 6 yr old daughter is helping with some gulling outside our apartment. Slight trespassing required ;)
Skip forward a year and I am now back in the UK and it’s going to be a whole different ball game. I’m not going to get 25 species of neotropical warbler streaming past the window. But it is good for me for several reasons; I can see at least 5 miles from my house windows, I have a load of different habitats on my ranch, I'm in the middle of a National Park, and I can’t drive at the moment anyway because of injury.
The north of the UK is rather like my old home in Patagonia. At over 54° either north or south, your field guide doesn’t get to passerines until the last third of the book ;)
To put into perspective: here's 54 south and 54 north....
That said, I’m about 45% of the state for January, two owls up, and essentially just missing waterbodies, reservoirs etc...
Here’s a few pics. You’ll notice a common theme. Snow. It’s like the Midwest here this year.... ;)
I never really played it because it required you to be in the UK obviously (which I hardly ever was), and there were so many score variations; do you live inland or coastal, separate parts of the country divided up, rarities scored different points somewhat arbitrarily depending on self-found vs twitched, and where they turned up.
So kudos to Jen Sanford for taking the initiative and getting the birding community behind a simpler one: The 5MR. A simple 5 mile radius from your home.
I’ve done this before - just for my own interest, rather than competitively (but I used kilometres so...... ;)
This original 5 mile circle got me 249 species over around 6 years - covering some of the finest toxic post-industrial wastelands of New Jersey and the southern part of Central Park through to lower Manhattan. And the Hudson River of course, which provided some megas - Cave Swallow being the best - somehow I got both the first and second county record of that. Go figure.
Here my 6 yr old daughter is helping with some gulling outside our apartment. Slight trespassing required ;)
Skip forward a year and I am now back in the UK and it’s going to be a whole different ball game. I’m not going to get 25 species of neotropical warbler streaming past the window. But it is good for me for several reasons; I can see at least 5 miles from my house windows, I have a load of different habitats on my ranch, I'm in the middle of a National Park, and I can’t drive at the moment anyway because of injury.
The north of the UK is rather like my old home in Patagonia. At over 54° either north or south, your field guide doesn’t get to passerines until the last third of the book ;)
To put into perspective: here's 54 south and 54 north....
That said, I’m about 45% of the state for January, two owls up, and essentially just missing waterbodies, reservoirs etc...
Here’s a few pics. You’ll notice a common theme. Snow. It’s like the Midwest here this year.... ;)
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