The Invitation to the Brockenbrough Ranch Big Sit:
The Good Water Master Naturalists have been invited to a bird count and nature hike event co-hosted with the Hill Country Conservancy at the Brockenbrough Ranch on October 8th. Event begins at 7:00 A.M. and ends with a nature hike around noon.
The Big Sit is the annual 24-hour bird count from a single location, a 17-ft diameter circle. The Big Sit is an international event hosted by Bird Watcher’s Digest and sponsored by Swarovski Optik. It was originally started by the New Haven Connecticut Bird Club. It is a competitive 24 hour event and the group who wins by seeing the most birds gets a $500 prize. During our travels I have seen folks having so much fun at the Big Sit events I passed by.
The Hill Country Conservancy and the Texas Land Conservancy have joined to arrange The Brockenbrough Ranch Big Sit. Information about the Brockenbrough Ranch can be found here: http://hillcountryconservancy.org/land-projects/hcc-conservation-projects/brockenbrough-ranch/
The Brockenbrough Ranch is a beautiful overlook of the blackland prairie in eastern Travis county. For their first year they will be doing an abbreviated version from 7 am to noon and wrap up with a hike.
They will have several bird and biology experts present and offer the opportunity to visit a private ranch and learn more about land conservation. No one is required to stay the entire time and are welcome to join for just the beginning or end. Refreshments will be available. Cost will be $5.00 to cover the expenses of the event.
The event page is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brockenbrough-big-sit-tickets-28163817737
Address for the Brockenbrough Ranch: 11309 Jones Rd, Manor, TX 78653 I am attaching a map at the bottom of the email.
Information for Good Water Master Naturalists:
It took me some time to get all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed as far as how this event fits in with Volunteer Hours and Advanced Training. After conferring with both Glenn and Judith, here is how to report it. During the bird watching time of the Big Sit, you can count for either e-Bird or iNaturalist. What I personally do for things like this, is I count my bird watching and photography time for e-Bird and then when I go home and transfer the photos to iNaturalist I count that time for iNaturalist. Obviously if I am photographing plants, insects, mammals, etc then that time would go towards iNaturalist.
The nature hike is probably going to count for Advanced Training time, but until someone attends it and reports back as to what was covered, approval will need to be done after the fact. Please let me or Judith know if you attend and want to count for Volunteer Hours. I will help get all the needed information that Judith will need for VMS.
I think this will be a fun event and worth your time.
Mary Ann Melton
Communications Director
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