It's that time of year again--we announce this years Utah Birders Challenge.  This year we decided to step away from challenges involving photos and instead focus our efforts this year on... EBIRD!  This year's challenge is a multi-faceted challenge with several different "challenges within challenges", or as we like to call it, eBird Inception. The actual challenge is quite simple and straightforward, but we've added in a few "bonus" challenges for extra points.  Unline in years past where there is 1 clear winner, this year anyone who completes all the tasks associated with the challenge is a winner--the question is, will anyone complete all the tasks to be a winner?

So right off the bat we can tell you there are 1000 possible points up for grabs if you complete all the challenges.  What do you get if you manage to reach that goal?  We're working on a prize package and reaching out to several local companies for donations for the winners.  Besides a small prize package you will also ge the limited edition 2015 Utah Birders Challenge Sticker--we will only print one for each person who reaches the goal so it will truly be limited.  You'll also get bragging rights.  This year anyone who competes can basically brag that they beat Jeff Bilsky since he might only manage a few points from his distant new home.  Let's jump right into the challenge!

This year we want you to submit 1 complete eBird checklist for a birding location in Utah every day of the year.  It can be any location; your home, your office, your drive, a lunch break birding sessions--whatever you can manage. It must be a traveling count or a stationary count and can be as short as 1 minute.  For every day you submit a checklist you will earn 1 point, for a total possible 365 points this year, just by submitting a checklist.

Now things get interesting.  We want you to try and submit 1 complete eBird checklist this year for every county in Utah during the calnedar year.  This means there might need to be a little planning to make this possible, given Utah's large size.  For each county you submit a complete checklist, you will recieve 3.45 points, for a possible 100 points if you were to submit a checklist for every county.

But hold on you can really tack on those points if you submit additional complete eBird checklists from every county this year.  After your initial checklist, you can submit up to 10 more checklists, from different locations, for an additional 10 bonus points per county.  So if you were to submit 11 checklists each form a different location in a county you would earn 13.45 points for that county--the inital 3.45 points for the 1st list, and an additional 10 points for each different location.  If you managed to get 10 for each county you would earn an additional 290 points for the year.

Now if you've done your math you know that 365 + 100 + 290 = 755.  This means there are an additional 245 points available to each participant.  The way to earn these is simple: 5 bonus points for each eBird birding hotspot write up submitted for the Utah Birding Spots page on Utahbirders.com (http://utahbirdingspots.blogspot.com/) for up to 49 locations.  We want to see if we can get a hot spot write up for every location by the end of the year, so we can have a complete guide to Utah Birding locations, with maps, photos, links to eBird lists, and the ability for users to comments and add information going forward. We have a small portion of these hot spots done, but have a listen of almost 1300 we need information for--and no one knows those places like the birders who go there.

If you want to work on the bonus points for locations, please contact us at utah.birders@gmail.com so we can set you up to do so, and make sure folks aren't double creating locations.

AND THAT'S IT!

If you'd like to compete in this years challenge click below to sign up:

SIGN UP NOW

BUT WAIT... THERE's MORE!!!

For anyone interested in a side challenge just for the fun of it we are challenign you all to do a NON HOME-COUNTY BIG YEAR.  The idea is simple. Do a county big year--in a county where you don't live!  SO if you live in Salt Lake County, choose another county and do a Big Year!

There are no points, no awards, just your own personal satisfaction, and a little good humored ribbing between other birders as you try to find as many birds as possible in a county you don't live in this year--if you happen to have homes in 2 counties--choose one of the other 27 available... :)

GOOD LUCK! and GOOD BIRDING IN 2015!

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%