Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 12:33:05 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Todd Day Subject: Plea for Kiptopeke Challenge Donors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Greetings from across the river, By now just about everyone on the listserv is aware of the Kiptopeke=20 Challenge being held on 20 September in Virginia. If not, in short, it is a= Birdathon=20 where teams will participate trying to find as many species of bird as=20 possible in a twenty-four hour period. Money raised goes to the Coastal Vir= ginia=20 Wildlife Observatory (CVWO).=A0 CVWO is a nonprofit organization that funds=20 several long-term studies on the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. Th= ey've=20 run a songbird banding station, a hawk banding station, a hawk watch, a Mona= rch=20 Butterfly banding project, and various other surveys on the Peninsula. Whil= e=20 not directly in Maryland, the information being gathered is certainly=20 important on a regional and global scale. =A0=20 What I'm asking for is donations. I've formed a team that is participating=20 in the Kiptopeke Challenge for the first time. We are The Southeast=20 Expeditions team and we need donations! The team is Mike Stinson, Sue Heath= , Ian=20 Topolsky, and yours truly. Our name comes from the Kayak/Outdoor Adventure=20= shop=20 located just next to the Best Western near the tip, run by Dave Burden, call= ed=20 Southeast Expeditions. =A0=20 We'll bird for at least twenty hours, maybe more, and would love to bring a=20 respectable envelope of pledges to the event. There are a couple ways to=20 sponsor our team. One would be to give a flat donation to the team for the=20 entire event. Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred bucks or more would be wonderfu= l. =20 It's tax deductible, and goes to a worthy cause. Another way to sponsor wou= ld be=20 to pledge money based on the amount of species we find. Sort of a=20 masochistic way to make the four of us sleepless for a day (or two, since th= ere's little=20 chance that we'll get much sleep the night before), and have us just keep=20 pushing knowing that each species means more money. We're fine with that, u= p for=20 the challenge. In truth I don't know how many species we'll get. I think=20 somewhere between 110 and 130 is our target, but there are lots of variables= . =20 Big days aren't new to any of us, so we know what we're getting into (extrem= e=20 fatigue, midday punchiness, toothpicks under the eyelids (think=20 Flintstones...)), but there's a little trial and error to planning a route.=20= It also helps if=20 it's a good passerine flight. Not to mention weather. That can put a dampe= r=20 on things in a hurry, and would keep the species totals down. What I can sa= y=20 is that we'll cover as much ground from the CBBT to Chincoteague and beat th= e=20 bushes to find as many species as we can.=A0 We're ready, willing, and=20 hopefully able, what we need are donors.=A0=20 So, please, if you'd like to support this team, send me an email or give me=20= a=20 call to let me know. I can be contacted by the following methods.=20 Email is blkvulture@aol.com. Phone is 800-947-2251. Ask for Todd, leave a message after work hours.=20 Cell phone is 703-209-8463.=A0=20 Thanks, and thanks to Norm Saunders for allowing this message, Cheers, Todd - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Todd Day Jeffersonton, VA Culpeper County Blkvulture@aol.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -=20 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================