With the start of another new year just around the corner it is once again
time to get ready for a "Big January." A "Big January" is a friendly
competition among birders to see who can find the most species of bird in
Connecticut during the first month of the year. While the statewide
competition is organized by COA, it s not necessary to be a COA member to
submit a list. Of course January is one of the twelve best months to join
COA if you are not already a member!

Birders take part in Big Januarys for the joy of birding and for the fun of
a friendly competition, however this year we have an opportunity to help
our knowledge of the state of birds within Connecticut to boot. The
Connecticut Bird Atlas Project will be entering the "Late Winter" survey
period in January. So you can volunteer to do field surveys and rack up
species for the competition at the same time. This also affords us the very
reasonable excuse to use with our loved ones that we are not just going
birding once again, we are doing fieldwork! A link to the Connecticut Bird
Atlas Project is at the end of this post. We birders are a noble and
selfless lot...

There are a few guidelines, and they are as follows:

• Advance registration is not required to participate.
• All species seen or heard (yes heard birds count) have to have been
  observed while you are on public land, your own property, or any private
  property you have permission to enter. The birds observed must of course be
  in Connecticut, Connecticut airspace, or Connecticut waters.
• The categories for totals are State and/or County.
• If you use eBird to submit all your observations for the month of
  January, we will use the eBird records for your totals, there is no need to
  supply other records to us.
• If you do not submit your records to eBird, please keep a record of
  where and when you first observed each species during the month and forward
  the total results at the end of the month to Dave Provencher via email at
  hikerbirder1@gmail.com.
• Deadline for submission is Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 11:59.
• The results will be reported shortly thereafter on the CTBirds
  list-serve and subsequently on the COA website.
• Digital photos of notable birds found during the competition are
  welcome and any images used for the summary report will be credited to the
  photographer.
• The competition is honor system based. Please make every effort to
  ensure your identifications are correct.
• It is an expectation that proper birding ethics will be employed by
  all competitors at all times.

That's it! When the first is upon us, go forth and bird! The best of luck
to all.

Connecticut Bird Atlas Project Winter Survey can be found at
http://ctbirdatlas.org/Surveys_winter.htm

Dave Provencher
Preston, CT

So here is the original email I sent out prior to January regarding
submitting your lists. If you enter your sightings into eBird you need not
submit your totals, I will get them from the Top 100 compilation in eBird.
As I posted earlier, if you added any species today please check the Top
100 early tomorrow morning to see if eBird captured it and if not you can
email your totals to me. In any event, feel free to email me your totals
regardless if that's what you want to do. Remember, I am posting your
totals, I do NOT need your species list, only your totals (I am not the
list police!) Please reread the guidance below. My email is
hikerbirder1@gmail.com.  The deadline for submission is Sunday, February 2,
2020 at 11:59.
NOTE: I will also post a list of everyone who topped 100 species in
Connecticut for the month of January.

Dave Provencher

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: David Provencher hikerbirder1@gmail.com
Date: Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 7:55 PM
Subject: Connecticut Big January 2020
To: Unknown ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org

With the start of another new year just around the corner it is once again
time to get ready for a "Big January." A "Big January" is a friendly
competition among birders to see who can find the most species of bird in
Connecticut during the first month of the year. While the statewide
competition is organized by COA, it s not necessary to be a COA member to
submit a list. Of course January is one of the twelve best months to join
COA if you are not already a member!

There are a few guidelines, and they are as follows:

• Advance registration is not required to participate.
• All species seen or heard (yes heard birds count) have to have been
  observed while you are on public land, your own property, or any private
  property you have permission to enter. The birds observed must of course be
  in Connecticut, Connecticut airspace, or Connecticut waters.
• The categories for totals are State and/or County.
• If you use eBird to submit all your observations for the month of
  January, we will use the eBird records for your totals, there is no need to
  supply other records to us.
• If you do not submit your records to eBird, please keep a record of
  where and when you first observed each species during the month and forward
  the total results at the end of the month to Dave Provencher via email at
  hikerbirder1@gmail.com.
• Deadline for submission is Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 11:59.
• The results will be reported shortly thereafter on the CTBirds
  list-serve and subsequently on the COA website.
• Digital photos of notable birds found during the competition are
  welcome and any images used for the summary report will be credited to the
  photographer.
• The competition is honor system based. Please make every effort to
  ensure your identifications are correct.
• It is an expectation that proper birding ethics will be employed by
  all competitors at all times.

That's it! When the first is upon us, go forth and bird! The best of luck
to all.

Connecticut Bird Atlas Project Winter Survey can be found at
http://ctbirdatlas.org/Surveys_winter.htm

Dave Provencher
Preston, CT