Cornell team raises $147,000 in World Series of Birding

Ithaca, NY, May 2005--The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s competitive birding team shattered a fundraising record for the annual World Series of Birding held in New Jersey on May 14. In an unprecedented show of support, bird lovers pledged $700 for every bird species the team could find in New Jersey during the 24-hour competition. With 211 species seen or heard, Team Sapsucker earned $147,000 for bird conservation--more than any other team.

Although the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club took home the Urner Stone Cup for the most bird species (222), the Sapsuckers’ captain Ken Rosenberg said that the day was a “blast” and that the planned route across the state was executed “nearly flawlessly.” Among the 211 species were 30 species of warblers and a Peregrine Falcon on a cliffside nest. Team Sapsucker, however, seemed jinxed when it came to the Pileated Woodpecker--usually a dependable find on the Big Day. It was an ironic miss, given recent national publicity about the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s role in the rediscovery of another large woodpecker and one of the world’s most elusive birds--the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

Donations pledged to Team Sapsucker will support an international effort to monitor and protect the birds that winter in Mexico and breed in North America. Many of these borderland birds are declining. All money pledged to Team Sapsucker will go into conservation, since sponsor Swarovski Optik covered all of the team’s expenses for the competition.

Swarovski also donated a pair of binoculars for the donor who came closest to guessing how many species the Sapsuckers found and the time of the last sighting. Marlene Fessick of Sevierville, Tennessee, was right on the money with 211 species and a final sighting at 11:30 P.M. That’s when the team heard their last bird of the night--a Gray-cheeked Thrush migrating in the dark overhead.

For more information about Team Sapsucker and the World Series of Birding, visit www.birds.cornell.edu/wsb.