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From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: September "Big Day" records
Message-ID: <34561@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 2 Sep 90 16:28:34 GMT
References: <34191@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <1166@cluster.cs.su.oz>
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In article <1166@cluster.cs.su.oz> andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor) writes:
>>Other country September records listed in TPBOBR 
>>
>>Panama               296        25 Sept 1979    Canal Zone
>>Australia            143        29 Sept 1984    Darwin area, N.T.
>
>Its a bit silly to compare northern September and southern September totals.
>It should be Australian March and for March its likely to be over 200.

When John McKean wrote to us 28 March 1985, he included State records, but
not monthly records per se.  In temperate Australia, wouldn't the
September (= early spring) records likely be HIGHER than March (=late summer,
early fall), especially since such a small proportion of Australian birds are
migrants.

Anyway, NO state record in Australia was set in March, whereas the
September figure above is the highest Northern Territory "Big Day" that
was known to John early in 1985.

(Around Darwin, the birds are probably easiest to find, although the
weather most uncomfortable, just at the start of the "wet", in late
October, before roads become too boggy.)

>The highest Aust. big day I've heard of is 222 by Chris Corben around Brisbane
>(don't know which month).  

Glen Ingram (a participant along with Corben and Anita Smyth) sent that to 
me with the total as 221, and it was indeed done in the Brisbane area,
October 19, 1985, i.e., in spring.  (Like April 19 in the American south.)
Maybe the total increased a posteriori due to a "split".

=============================================================================

>>Panama               296        25 Sept 1979    Canal Zone

And for the tropics, month of the year and "season" per se means almost
nothing.  It is wet-dry that matters, or, in the case of the American
tropics, when the temparate migrants are there, namely northern "winter"
from perhaps September to March.  But October-January is the rainy reason
in central America, difficult to bird, so perhaps February-March would
be best there.

Interestingly, the "world records" by month as of late 1985, in the
"Pettingell Book of Birding Records", are from North America
for the northern spring and summer, and for tropical areas otherwise:

Jan    255    Panama
Feb    290    Kenya
Mar    208    Papua New Guinea

Apr    243    California
May    246    Texas
Jun    187    Manitoba
Jul    170    California
Aug    172    Arizona

Sep    331    Peru
Oct    278    Peru
Nov    308    Kenya
Dec    288    Zambia

Of course, this reflects, among many other things, (a) the information fields
of the compilers of the PBOBR, with a tremendous North American bias;  (b) the
fact that Big Days are a very "American" activity; and (c) the fact that
Americans bird in the tropics mostly in our winter.

David Mark
dmark@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu