Sixth Annual TAS
TAS Birdathon 2008
2008

Birdathon Tips

Doing a Birdathon is easier than you might think. Some birders may be out for 24 hours straight. Some may bring in hundreds of dollars in pledges. But a Birdathon can be as easy as counting birds for an hour at lunchtime and collecting $25 in pledges. But don't forget that collecting $40 entitles you to a colorful TAS license plate holder, Three simple steps will do it.

1. First Things First

Doing a birdathon can be as simple as counting birds on any of the TAS bird and nature walks during the birdathon period or as complicated as a 24-hour, 500-mile Big Day. If you aren't basing your birdathon on a TAS walk: Decide if you want to bird alone, find a partner or partners, or join an existing team. Decide how much time you want to spend chasing birds on your birdathon day (any consecutive 24-hour period from April 5 to April 20). Decide where you want to bird. This might be a run from Ft. Myers for shorebirds, over to Miami for parrots, then down to the Everglades for everything else. Or it might be watching a feeder in your backyard while eating lunch. It might even be channel-surfing for birds on TV during commercial breaks.

2. Line up Sponsors

Once you have settled on a Birdathon strategy, line up sponsors (see 10 easy steps below). Download the pledge materials. If you are visiting neighbors door to door or hitting up people at work, it might be easiest to use the full page pledge sheet to list sponsor information and revisit sponsors after the Birdathon to collect pledges. But if you want to simply call sponsors after the Birdathon and let them know how many species you saw, use the half-page pledge form with them and ask them to return it to you with their pledge. It is a good idea to leave a self-addressed, stamped envelope with the form if you are doing this.

3. Collect Pledges — and prizes

Contact your sponsors and let them know how many birds you saw. Visit them personally to collect their pledges, or phone them and ask them to send their pledges to you, using the stamped/self-addressed envelopes and pledge forms you left with them. If any of your sponsors contributed $40 or more we will give them TAS license plate holder. If you collected $40 or more, you win a TAS license plate holder yourself. If you are collecting higher pledge totals, you may will an additional prize, including a pelagic trip. Prizes will be listed on the main birdathon page as they become available. Birdathon prizes will be announced at the Tropical Audubon Wingding, April 27th at the Doc Thomas House.

Ten easy steps to 100 Birdathon bucks

Here are some tips from the National Audubon Society:

  1. Ask your best friend to sponsor you for $10 (what are friends for?).
  2. Ask one presumably generous acquaintance for $10.
  3. Ask a relative for $10.
  4. Ask an in-law for $10.
  5. Ask your doctor for $10.
  6. Ask your dentist for $10 (unless he is Tropical Audubon President Joe Barros, in which case ask for $20).
  7. Ask a local merchant for $10.
  8. Ask a neighbor for $10.
  9. Ask a church or temple member for $10.
  10. Ask yourself for $10.

That was a quick $100 — if you're still on a roll, here are five more:

  1. Ask a work colleague (or your boss) for $10.
  2. Ask a club member for $10.
  3. Ask your barber or stylist for $10.
  4. Ask more friends for $10.
  5. Ask your carpool mates, lawyer, real-estate agent, personal trainer, psychic medium, dog groomer, dog's psychic medium...

Asking with ease

Some people are not comfortable with the “verbal ask” (although it's usually more effective). If that's you, send one of the small sponsor forms to a potential sponsor — or simply hand it to your potential sponsor with a smile. If you are comfortable asking your potential sponsors, don't forget to tell them about the great work that Tropical does to protect our south Florida environment. We've been around since 1947. We were instrumental in the establishment of Everglades National Park. More recently we fought hard to prevent development of a commercial airport in Homestead, which would have impacted both Everglades and Biscayne National Parks. And we are always going to bat to prevent over-development of the few remaining rural areas in south Florida. If you're a birder you know especially well how important these buffer areas are.

Fortunately, it is possible to raise Birdathon money without having up walk up to a single person and ask for a donation. Mary Ellen Ahearn, for example, took homemade blueberry muffins in to her office and placed them by the coffeemaker with a brief description of the Birdathon and some pledge forms She asked that co-workers help themselves to the muffins and support her birdathon. Some people left a dollar or two for muffins, others pledged ten, twenty, or fifty dollars to her birdathon effort. This low-key approach raised over $350.

Most people say that they care about the environment — this is an easy way for them to do something for it. And every single dollar stays right here in south Florida, fighting the good fight. Birdathons are major fundraisers for many Audubon chapters across the country. For example, Portland Audubon raised $81,000 with their 2001 Birdathon and $108,000 in 2004. South Florida has at least as much to protect, but lacks Portland's long tradition of birdathoning. Let's do something about that.

Pledge Forms

The pledge forms are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. You must have Acrobat Reader installed in order to use them.