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with Phyllis Yochem
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Tuesday, November 16, 1999
Weekend contest features competitive birdwatching for prizes
Cash prizes awarded to every competing team, based on overall ranking in relation to other teams
Two intellectual-type birders, Robert Benson and Kent Taylor, have hatched a new birding organization called Professional Birding Association Inc. To introduce it they have devised an imaginative new birding game, a kind of field trial and competition for birders. The first Texas Autumn Invitational Birding tournament is scheduled for Nov. 19-21. The event will be divided into rounds, and spectators are invited to observe the first round. Can this be birding? Come out and see.
Benson, a professor of bio-acoustics at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, has produced a two-volume tape called "Favorite Texas Birds, Their Songs and Calls," with his wife, Karen. Taylor is a longtime birder and is now compiler for the famous Corpus Christi Christmas Bird Count. An electronics parts distributor and Internet provider, he runs the Coastal Bend Rare Bird Alert (361) 883-7410.
Rules may be viewed on the PBA Web page at probirding.com on the Internet. From a $20,000 purse, prizes will be awarded to every participating team according to their ranking from highest number of points to lowest. Prizes will be awarded at 1 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Tejas B room of the new University Center at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Ten teams of 3 members each will participate. Guess who will be among them. I will. . .with Beverly Held and her husband, Don Bentley, as my partners. Our team has a history of success. We were twice winners of a competition sponsored by the Main Group Birding Club of Sinton. The first year we entered in the hobby class and, having won that, registered the following year as experts. Will we be able to hold our own among professionals? We shall see.
Benson and Taylor have spent considerable time and thought in spelling out what the teams are permitted to do and what is expected of them. A main consideration is the list itself, on which each species of bird is given a value in terms of points gained by seeing it. If our team should see a horned grebe, we would receive 6 points. All members of the team must see every bird. Teams will submit a separate list for each day and points will be totaled at the end of the tournament. The same high count species, (say a red-necked grebe for 12 points) if seen each day, may be listed each day.
On Nov. 19, when spectators are invited to participate, teams will be birding at Hans and Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge, Indian Point, Hazel Bazemore County Park, and Hilltop Community Center. Contestants will wear identifying vests. Teams may bird any or all of these areas, in any order they see fit.
On the second and third days, teams may go where they please within the competition area, which includes all publicly accessible property and bodies of water contained in Nueces, Aransas, San Patricio, and Jim Wells counties.
I can't believe how enthusiastic I feel about participating in such a competitive endeavor. Our team has agreed we are in this for the fun. We don't mind if we don't win. It is probably a good thing, because we probably will not.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi
resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.
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