THE WORLD SERIES OF BIRDING RESULTS
by Dennis Briede Stewardship Manager

It was a minute before midnight of the big event. The gas tank was filled. The coolers were packed with food & drink. Our team The Highlands Hawks consisting of Alan Boyd, Stephen Kloiber & I were well rested & ready to go. It was time to begin the 2011 World Series of Birding. It was dark, cool & cloudy.

We started at midnight in Blairstown (Warren County) where we managed to get our first bird, the Whip-poor-will calling in the pitch black night up on Catfish Mountain. Avoiding the skunks, opossums, raccoons and deer crossing our car’s path we then headed to the marshes & swamps of Sussex County to hear other night birds such as rails, owls & bitterns. We managed to get a rail, an owl but no bitterns. A few other birds were also calling such as geese, sparrows and a turkey.

We then spent dawn in the Wantage Grasslands of Sussex County listening for the open farm & grassland birds such as bobolink, savannah sparrow, orchard oriole & kingbird. The next 3 hours were spent winding through and stopping at the many productive spots in the deep wilds of High Point State Park & Stokes State Forest where we added hawks, warblers, vireos, woodpeckers & thrushes.

At 9:30 am we then left the forest and headed south on Rt 206 to an old sandpit north of Newton where we added indigo bunting, swallows and a kingfisher among others. After a 2.5 hour ride south we stopped at the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge known as Brigantine where we added a bunch of birds such as terns, ducks, gulls, sandpipers, herons & egrets. Our list was growing.

Our next stop was Belleplain State Forest in Cape May County. There we added the beautiful summer tanager and the blue grosbeak among others. From there we visited several of the parks near the beaches of Cape May and got many more shorebirds such as sandpipers, plovers, terns & gulls.

As evening approached the wind picked up so we were not able to hear any more night birds. It was time to call it quits after driving over 600 miles. We then checked in to the meeting place where we got a round of applause from the crowd. I found out later that all participants entering the meeting place got a round of applause.


We ended up with 151 species of birds which was 7th place in the entire state category and 11 place overall out of 64 teams. In order to take on such an endeavor as The 24 hour World Series of Birding one has to not only be awake for more than 24 hours but also be sharp enough during the entire time not to miss any bird calls. When it was over we slept very soundly that night.

We at the Land Conservancy of New Jersey would like to say thank you to all who pledged dollars for this event. Because of the generosity of all of our donors we raised over $14,000 toward our land preservation efforts. Now you get a round of applause.