It’s here: Birds of the Solstice: December 2008! Birders from around the world participated in this inaugural event. There’s lots of great stuff to explore, so we hope this will be some happy holiday weekend reading for you, wherever you may be.
We’re planning to do this again 20 March 2009 — Birds of the Equinox this time — so stay tuned.
Happy New Year!
Twelve hours have passed since solstice, so the official observation period for Birds of the Solstice has ended. Now it’s time to gather your notes, record your observations, sort your photos, and compose your thoughts and poems!
It’s Birds of the Solstice time! You still have 19 hours to go birding and participate in the very first installment of this international birding event. Reports have already started trickling in from the eastern hemisphere, where it is currently daytime. The timetable, ideas, and submission guidelines are here. You have until 26 December to compose all of your lists, notes, photo albums, etc. and send them to our editorial team at solar-birding@birdstack.com.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
Birds of the Solstice is a project to document birdlife around the world during the December solstice, which is this Sunday — 21 December at 12:04 p.m. UCT (that’s 7:04 a.m. in New York and 11:04 p.m. in Sydney). We want to hear from you, wherever you are that day! Here’s how.
Depending on your cultural outlook, solstice marks either the beginning or the midpoint of a season. Depending on your hemisphere, that season is either winter or summer.
It’s an excellent time to stop and reflect on the birds around you. For me, few things say “winter” as eloquently as the burry call of a chickadee on cold, frosty air.
At some point within 12 hours either side of the solstice, go birding — even if it’s just by looking out your window for 10 minutes. Record your observations in a trip on Birdstack. Take pictures. Blog your thoughts. Here are more ideas, an official timetable for participation, and the rules.
There are Birdstackers on six continents, and we’d love to have participation from Tasmania to Finland and from Capetown to Gujarat. By December 31, we’ll post a compilation page with your observations, pictures, and thoughts.
If you would like to promote Birds of the Solstice on your blog, you can copy and paste either of these code snippets:
Banner (500px by 110px):
<a href="http://birdstack.com/solar-birding"><img src="http://birdstack.com/images/solstice-banner.jpg" alt="Birds of the Solstice" title="Birds of the Solstice, a Birdstack community project" /></a>
or
Button (165px by 165px):
<a href="http://birdstack.com/solar-birding"><img src="http://birdstack.com/images/solstice-button.jpg" alt="Birds of the Solstice" title="Birds of the Solstice, a Birdstack community project" /></a>
Good birding!
Two amazing things just happened to Birdstack:
Since our earliest beta tests in January ’08, you have been expressing your interest in other Birdstackers — who they are, where they’ve been, what they’re seeing, and how to stay in touch with them. In the months since we launched, many of you have suggested that we add more social networking features, which confirmed hopes and ideas we’ve had since before we even launched Birdstack.
So, you’ve been asking for it, and now it’s here. You can click “Add as friend” on any Birdstacker’s profile page, and that person will receive a notification of your request. (Email notifications are optionally available, and you will also see notifications on your dashboard and in the notifications area at the very top of each page.) Once the notification is accepted, you’ll be friends on Birdstack.
Activity feeds give you a running commentary on what people have been seeing and where. There’s more info about activity feeds and friends in the Q&A below:
OK, I want a friend, but where can I find one?
Where can I see activity feeds in action?
Check out the people page or any Birdstacker’s profile. Once you have some friends on Birdstack, you’ll see a snippet of a friend’s recent activity on your dashboard, and you’ll also have a special page that shows recent updates from all of your friends. If you see something interesting in the feeds, don’t forget to pop over and leave a comment for your friend!
Shouldn’t activity feeds be available as Atom feeds, as comments and lists already are?
Yes, yes, they should. We’re working on that.
Will any of this violate my privacy?
No. If you mark your data as private, it stays private and won’t show up an any activity feeds. If you mark something as private after it’s already shown up your activity feed, it will be removed.
What if I don’t want any friends?
Well, that would be sad. But we understand that some of you want to use Birdstack’s powerful data storage and processing capabilities and leave it at that. That’s OK. You don’t have to send any friend requests, and you can ignore any that you receive.
I just added some observations. Why aren’t they showing up in my activity feed yet?
Activity feeds are updated every few minutes.
I like it! I don’t like it! I have another idea!
We want to know what you think. Leave a comment here or use the contact form.
Happy communitizing!