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COMAL is a friendly birding activity... Some see it as a competition. Others do not. Both viewpoints are fine by me... I like all the discussion about alternate birding methodologies, and welcome them... I just can't get past the point though that there are simply some areas that are better to bird than others and that having those areas in a given circle gives that circle a better chance of seeing more species than a circle drawn somewhere else... There will always be inequities in the circles / areas we bird... So... Do as YOU want. Bird in circles, a circle, a county, counties, state-wide, or chase only lifers / state lifers, etc... WHATEVER you decide, do it with a smile and SHARE your great finds! If some form of consensus develops that can be tracked like COMAL on mobirds.org, I'd be happy to put it together online so that those that participate can do just that, enter their results online. Bird on!!! Patrick -----Original Message----- From: MO Wild Bird Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Fisher Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 11:36 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Big Year--Think Local Anyone? With the price of gas as it is, maybe it would be a good idea to have local COMALs rather than a statewide COMAL this year. Once you get yourself away from the statewide COMAL, you also feel more free to bird in another, nearby state. Kansas City is about 36 miles from north to south, so a 75 mile radius from its extremities is, in effect, a circle with about a 93 mile radius from the center. Such a circle is large enough to take in Squaw Creek on the North and the Horton Road (below 4-Rivers) on the south, Swan Lake to the northeast, Grand Pass CA and Van Meter S.P. on the east and Knob Noster S.P. and Tightwad to the SE (the last two being stakeout places for Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler and Bewick's Wren.) It includes the entire area within which I saw 260 species in 2006 and know of at least 27 more that others saw and I missed that year. If Kansas is to be included, the 93 mile circle from center takes in Lyon Co. State Lake (where we get L.E. Owls and Smith's Longspurs annually) and Redmond, Wolf Creek, Melvern, Pomona, Hillsdale, Clinton and Perry reservoirs, plus Marais des Cygnes W.M.A. A comparable circle centered in St. Louis could include Carlyle Lake in Illinois and Ted Shanks CA. A circle centered in Columbia could also reach lots of good spots. In my opinion, the circle should be drawn large enough to encourage normal birding. I would not want to take a normal birding trip and find myself saying "Oh. Oh. We're about to get out of the circle!" thereby restricting myself from going where I would normally want to go. Maybe the friendly competition of COMAL should be between circles centered in or near Kansas City, Columbia, St. Louis, SE Missouri and Springfield? Maybe you get to put your own circle wherever you want. If it's the same size as someone else's circle, you're in friendly competition -- as a few CBCs compete for the highest number of species each year? What say you? Bob Fisher Independence, Missouri [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________ ########################################################### * Audubon Society of Missouri's * * Wild Bird Discussion Forum * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To subscribe or unsubscribe, click here: * * https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1 * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To access the list archives, click here: * * http://po.missouri.edu/archives/mobirds-l.html * * * * To access the Audubon Society of Missouri Web * * Site: http://mobirds.org * ########################################################### __________________________________________________ ########################################################### * Audubon Society of Missouri's * * Wild Bird Discussion Forum * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To subscribe or unsubscribe, click here: * * https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1 * *---------------------------------------------------------* * To access the list archives, click here: * * http://po.missouri.edu/archives/mobirds-l.html * * * * To access the Audubon Society of Missouri Web * * Site: http://mobirds.org * ###########################################################