Now that a few days have passed since the end of the year and most or all of the pending reports have been reviewed, it is time to calculate and announce the final winner of the county eBirding contest! For those of you following the updates at the Utah BirdTalk list, it will come as no surprise that the winner is the same county that has held an impressive lead for the last several months: congratulations to the winners, Kimberly Roush, Nancy Matro, and Dave Hanscom of SUMMIT COUNTY! Summit County really cleaned up this year, and ended up with 100.9% of their pre-2012 list reported in 2012! As the winners of the competition, these three birders will be hosted on a day of birding in each of the losing counties, by registered participants from each of those counties, any time between now and the end of March. The dates will be offered at the discretion of the birders from the hosting counties. Great work, Summit County; you set an example for all of us!
Here are the other competing counties and their rankings. (Note that there may be slight changes in these percentages if late reports are submitted or if pending records are accepted, but the winner will not change and you can consider these the final rankings for the purpose of this competition.)
2. Davis County, 89.4%
3. Salt Lake County, 88.2%
4. Cache County, 87.6%
5. Uintah County, 85.1%
6. Utah County, 83.9%
7. Duchesne County, 83.3%
8. Box Elder County, 82.8%
9. Washington County, 78.4%
10. Iron County, 68.8%
Thanks for setting this up, Ryan. As I mentioned earlier in the year, the Summit County eBird list was pretty soft, with only 212 species. It seems that few birders who either live or bird here have used eBird in the past. You inspired me to do so, which was long overdue. Nothing like a little competition to get my blood flowing. :-)
ReplyDeleteIf you decide to repeat the contest, I'll be sure to sign up. (And I cerainly won't be doing another Big Year in the foreseeable future!) I think it'll be much fairer at this point, with 20 more species on the Summit County list.