[CT Birds] Hartford County Big January of Birding

[Sarah Faulkner via CTBirds]

Dear HAS Members,

It's that time of year! The Hartford Audubon Society (HAS) is pleased to
announce our ninth annual *Hartford County Big January of Birding* birdwatching
challenge. The goal of the activity is to encourage folks to get outside
during the month of January and see as many species of wild birds in
Hartford County as possible. The challenge is free to people of all ages
and is not intended to be competitive -- please share your findings and
encourage new birders.

And this year, the CT Ornithological Association is running an all-CT Big
January, so you can do both ours in Hartford County AND the statewide
challenge too!

To participate in both challenges, birders should enter their daily or
periodic observations into *ebird.org <http://ebird.org/>*, the free
birdwatching site maintained by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.
If you don’t use eBird, you can list your species, date seen, location, and
brief description, and send it via email or mail directly to me right at
the end of January. It must be *received* by Wednesday, February 4th. You
do not need to be a HAS member or reside in Hartford County to enter. At
the end of the month, Hartford Audubon will retrieve all the data and award
certificates and prizes. There are four categories:

- Youth (ages 4-10) who must see at least 25 species to enter
- Teen (ages 11-17) who must see at least 35 species to enter
- Weekend Warrior (adults ages 18 and up who can’t get outdoors during
the week) who must see at least 50 species to enter
- Adults (ages 18 and up who can get outdoors during the week) who must
see at least 60 species to enter.

All entries that meet the minimum number of species for each challenge
group will receive a certificate of achievement. A special prize will be
awarded for the highest species count for each challenge group, and the
coveted “Golden Grebe” award will be given to the birder finding the most
unusual bird. Please see the HAS website at
https://www.hartfordaudubon.org/
<https://www.hartfordaudubon.org/trips-events/club-events/> for contest
details.

January, 2026 may be a very interesting month and a joyful way to enter the
new year. There are some rarities showing up this week - I hope they will
stay until after January 1st! I've never seen a barnacle goose in
Connecticut!

*Please feel free to share this email with all your bird-loving friends.*
We’d like nothing more than to hand out dozens of certificates!

Wishing everyone a healthy and birdy 2026,

Sarah Faulkner

To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: ctbirds...@lists.ctbirding.org

CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. Please support COA: https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/

CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For list rules and subscription information visit: https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/