Great suggestions, Suan. And you make really good points about the Christmas Bird Count.
I heartily endorse the Finger Lakes Climate Fun--our family offsets all our travel, heating, electricity, etc use at the end of each year (using their handy calculator) with a donation to this group, which then uses the money to help make local homes more energy efficient--for families who couldn't otherwise afford to do this. So, our birding is already covered in that (not saying it excuses all the travel). Perhaps some others are also already doing this? Here is what they say on their website "The Finger Lakes Climate Fund will initially fund residential energy efficiency projects for low to moderate income households in the Finger Lakes region. The fund will help pay for insulation, air sealing, energy efficient heating equipment, and other upgrades to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The energy efficiency upgrades are carried out by Building Performance Institute accredited contractors using guidelines provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. These home energy efficiency projects reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support low income families, and help stimulate our local economy. " Sandy Podulka At 08:49 PM 12/10/2021, Suan Hsi Yong wrote: >Very engaging discussion about >emission-awareness while birding. Let me throw in a few cents. > >Broadening the scope of an outing to include >more than birds is definitely a good idea. In >past years, the Lab of O has collaborated with >the Botanic Gardens to have bird walks at the >Arboretum and plant walks at Sapsucker Woods, >which I've always tried to attend (so I can >learn what to tell people during bird walks when >there are no birds :-). I've also joined various >walks hosted mainly by the FLLT in the past to >learn about tree identification (from Akiva >Silver, >https://www.fllt.org/profiles/akiva-silver/), >animal tracking (from Linda Spielman, >https://lindajspielman.com/), etc. We could try >to organize "birding plus" walks and invite >leaders from other disciplines. Otherwise, as an >individual, iNaturalist and Google Lens are >resources that can let one identify and learn on >their own about what they're seeing. > >Encouraging field trip participants to donate to >FLLT or SPCA is an interesting idea. We might >get into a question of which of the many worthy >causes we decide to endorse. As club president, >I'd rather not make top-down endorsements; >instead, we could let each field trip leader >decide, since they are after all the ones volunteering to lead. > >Carbon offsetting via >https://www.fingerlakesclimatefund.org/ is also >an interesting idea. In fact, I can imagine a >feature like this being incorporated into eBird: >if on a given day you submit checklists from >Myers, Long Point, Montezuma, and Dean's Cove, >there's enough information there for the >software to estimate the distance traveled, and >thus the emission cost of that outing. For club >Field Trips, we could also make it a conscious >step to compute this, either estimate before or >consciously check the odometer afterwards, and >tell the participants. Much like how calorie >counts are becoming commonplace on menus, >perhaps our field trip descriptions should >include an estimated carbon cost in dollars per vehicle. > >The Christmas Bird Count is IMO the wrong thing >to focus on when it comes to reducing driving. >The count at least has a survey goal, and unless >birders' homes happen to coincide with a decent >statistical cover of the circle, non-local >movement will be necessary. We could aim to >encourage biking, but that requires >infrastructure investments, especially in >winter, and is thus a long term goal. The best >we can do, I think, is to minimize the >frequent-stop-and-go driving style, e.g., using >Dave's leap-frogging idea when possible. This >would apply to Atlas surveys also the rest of the year. > >Chasing rarities and non-local hotspots (like >Montezuma) are bigger problems, IMO. Unless one >makes a conscious decision not to chase, >carpooling is probably the best mitigating >solution. Unfortunately, COVID is forcing us to >discourage carpooling. To encourage birding more >locally, there's the notion of adopting a local >patch and birding it year round to see what >changes, and maybe learn more about the rest of >its non-avian biology if the birding is quiet. >Or make your yard its own hotspot by creating >habitat, planting native plants, etc. > >I've been thinking of having more >single-destination field trips, as opposed to >trips that drive to multiple places. Last >weekend's morning at Stewart park was one such >trip, which turned out remarkably productive. >Unfortunately, there aren't many good single >destinations for birding in the winter months, >but Spring would be a time to try more of this. > >Suan > >--- > >Birdwatchingâs Carbon Problem | Bryan Pfeiffer >https://bryanpfeiffer.com/2021/12/02/birdwatchings-carbon-problem/ > >-- > >Cayugabirds-L List Info: >http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME >http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES >http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > >ARCHIVES: >1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html >2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds >3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > >Please submit your observations to eBird: >http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > >-- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
