Birdathon Wrap-up:

Thank you for participating in Saturday's extravaganza!

Congratulations to MODOCROP (Ryan, Chelsea, Case, Jim, and Jen) on seeing the most birds in all of Brooklyn, tallying 118 species. Well done!

Congratulations to brant summer (Forrest, Ant, Gab, Joe, Danielle, and Xinyi) for being our fundraising champion, raising $2,425 for this year's birdathon!

Birdathon:

We’re happy to announce the 2025 Brooklyn Bird Club Birdathon, to be held in celebration of World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) on Saturday, May 10. #bkbigday

The annual Birdathon asks birders to form teams of up to 6 members and count bird species in Brooklyn in support of a cause that helps the birds we love. Everyone is welcome—hardcore birders, backyard feeder watchers, and beginners! Like a walkathon, participants collect pledges and donations from friends and family for finding and counting bird species on the day of the Birdathon. Instead of getting a pledge per mile walked, Birdathon participants ask for a pledge for each bird species seen by the team.

A note on pledges: You are free to make a lump sum donation at any time, but if you are pledging a $ amount per bird, please come back here to make your donation after your sponsee has told you how many birds they saw. Feel free to memorialize your pledge amount in the comment box. We thank you and the birds thank you!

Please register your team by sending team members, your day’s goal, a team name, and a team logo (optional) to Bobbi Manian birdathon@brooklynbirdclub.org by Tuesday, May 6.

If you’d like to be connected to a team, contact Bobbi Manian who will try to connect people with similar levels of commitment.

🏅 This year’s designated beneficiary is the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI)

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI)

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) is the catalyst for development and establishment of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway (BWG), a 29-mile protected and landscaped route for pedestrians and cyclists. Since our founding in 2004, BGI has channeled more than $218 million toward implementing the BWG as well as creating, staffing and engaging communities at the Naval Cemetery Landscape (NCL), a pollinator meadow, historic site, and public space beside the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Prior to BGI’s planning and investments at the 1.7 acre site in 2016, the NCL was an off-limits and foreboding lot overrun by invasive mugwort and mulberry. An inactive cemetery that served the nearby former Naval Hospital, the NCL is now a unique, climate-resilient, and drought-tolerant native plant meadow, where BGI hosts 50+ public environmental, cultural, volunteer, and arts programs per year. More than 14,500 visitors visited the NCL in 2024.

Located in an environmental justice community as defined by the NYC Mayor’s Office, the surrounding neighborhoods (including Williamsburg, Wallabout, and Clinton Hill) have very little park space and no other natural area. Nearby blocks include a mix of residences, industrial parks, vast parking lots, and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. As a result, this community is vulnerable to urban heat island effects, poor air quality, and fragmented pollinator and bird habitat. A certified monarch butterfly waystation, the NCL is home to many pollinators–including bats, moths, and dragonflies, and five rare native species of nesting bees. This rich insect diversity makes the NCL an important bird habitat and greenspace on the Atlantic Flyway year-round. Our work at the NCL highlights how our greenways can become corridors for wildlife as well as humans and make the city more habitable for both.

The Naval Cemetery Landscape is a critical habitat for local and migratory bird species. In 2024, our staff identified over 85 bird species at the NCL including rare species for the urban area and many dependent on the native insect population the native meadow and perimeter woodland supports. Deliberate techniques and timing of cutback by the horticultural team create habitat and resources year round. Former staff member, Eric Thompson, presented Life In A Cemetery onsite at the Naval Cemetery Landscape, for the Brooklyn Bird Club, and online to share the different species of birds who call the NCL home.

Here are some of the ways the 2025 Birdathon will support our efforts at the Naval Cemetery Landscape:

Water bath station for pollinators and birds on site or new binocular sets for visitor use
Reference guides for volunteers to identify weeds to remove, and/or “Tiny Tips” birding zines
Provides pruners, shovels, and other equipment to a volunteer event
Funds a bird-focused artist residency project
Provide funds for native seed packets for reseeding in the landscape and for visitors to take home
Provides funds for a permanent bird monitoring station and user-interactive app via BirdWeather PUC
Hosts Sunday morning birding events at the Naval Cemetery Landscape in 2025
Remove invasive trees and create bird-friendly snags from dying or or dead trees

https://www.brooklyngreenway.org/

Birdathon Teams

SCTA Spark Boiders '75

Three premier eared Brooklyn birders celebrate Peter's 50th birding anniversary this year, set upon a goal of getting his spark bird Scarlet Tanager (SCTA), compensating for his lack of hearing with the hope of attaining 100 species. We will explore the "wilds" of Kings for most of the day with long time friends, much grateful for their help.

Team members: Peter, Ryan, Tom, Ed

Brant Summer

The Birdathon is one of those Brooklyn Bird Club “Club Classics,” and we’ve been training “365” to “Rewind” and go “Back 2 Back” with what we did last year: Searching “360” around Prospect Park to find as many species as we can without leaving it, endeavoring to “Guess” the identity of every single bird, whether a Neotropical “Spring Breaker” or a “Gull (So Confusing) (Feat. Lorde).”

Team members: Forrest, Ant, Gab, Joe, Danielle, and Xinyi

Count Graculas

We aim to Count every bird we see, through the burning light of day-with capes off, no matter the stakes at hand blah.

Team members: Valerie, Michele, Crystal, Radka, Jeremy, and Jeff

Intro to Birdwatching

The Intro to Birdwatching walk will be participating in Brooklyn Bird Club's Spring Birdathon and World Migratory Bird Day this Saturday, May 10th. Come join us (and donate too!) as we take our usual routes around Prospect Park: the Boathouse and back in two hours.

Many thanks to all the leaders who make this possible: Tina, Linda, Jay, Forrest, Radka, Angie, Taylor, Megan, Zach and Mike. Additional thanks to the Brooklyn Bird Club for hosting these walks and providing binoculars!

The Kylo Wrens

May the Fourth (er—Tenth) be with you! We'll be speed-running Prospect Park from 7am-3pm, aiming for 80 species in 8 hours.

Team members: Sameer, Martha, Jason, and Louis

Bird on the Street

“Bird on the Street” in the brooklyn botanic garden starting at 8am. We will be probably only bird for 3-4 hours.

Team members: Nikki, Ryan, and Mads

Sedentary Sandpipers

Meet the Sedentary Sandpipers: We believes “field work” means reclining in camp chairs while birds interrupt our snack breaks and naps. Armed with binoculars, an impressive collection of beverage cozies, and zero desire to break a sweat, we’ll transform our single patch of turf into birding’s equivalent of a drive-thru window. We’re 100% committed to the art of sitting. Who needs kilometers of walking when you’ve got the sheer willpower to remain absolutely stationary? Patience isn’t just a virtue—it’s our entire workout plan. Stop by and say hello - we'll be on top of lookout. Don't wake us if we're asleep!

Team members: Karen and Katie

Timberdoodlers

Join the Timberdoodlers as the BBC Migration walk becomes a bird-finding machine for the Birdathon. Our goal is to set a new record of 100 species for the day, just in the park! Meet 7:30 am at the “Pergola” entrance on Ocean and Parkside Avenues.

Team members: Dennis, Bobbi, et al.

MODOCROP

The future of birding is MODOCROP: Half Bird, Half Machine, All Sleepy. Team MODOCROP will try to see as many species as they can across the County of Kings while restoring JUSTICE to the forest, building QUESTIONABLE nests, and cooing with a ROBOTIC EFFECT applied because the year is now 2030.

Team members: Ryan, Chelsea, Case, Jim, and Jen

Flagged for Count

We're team Flagged For Count, and we'll be birding Brooklyn's interior parks as well as the coast to try to see as many birds as we can. We'll count the birds we see, and make a day list of species (which we'll also count to see how many we got!). The Brooklyn bird club can certainly count on us to make a donation to the cause. But please don't count us or you'll get flagged (for count).

Team members: Tripper, Daisy, Sara, Thomas, Emily, Eleanor, Michael, Max, and Dan

2025 Spring Birdathon - Brooklyn Bird Club

By Brooklyn Bird Club

2025 Spring Birdathon - Brooklyn Bird Club

Saturday, May 10