An owl says “hoo dat?” as he is caught in the mist net hanging in the dark. “Damn,” the owl thinks as he is put in the cloth sack. The owl doesn’t know what to think as he is placed upside down in a plastic jar to be weighed. At the end of the ordeal is freedom…and a cool new ID bracelet to show his friends and impress the ladies. I first heard about the Cape May, NJ owl banding…
Step one, watch The Big Year movie with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black. Step two, get a couple of your friends together to hold your own (very little) Big Year birding competition. Step three, have at it for bragging rights…and it is a pretty healthy diversion. First, we should define a Big Year. A Big Year, according to Wikipedia (which contains the sum total of all human knowledge), “is an informal competition among birders to see who can see or hear the…