Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!

Rye Women Compete in 'Superbowl of Birding' (Tailgating Optional)

Courtesy

 

A group of New Hampshire women will compete in a Superbowl of their own Saturday -- the Audubon Society's annual Superbowl of Birding. 

 

The group is called the Twitchers in the Rye, after the women's hometown. They'll spend 12 hours scouring local woods, backyards and coastline for as many species of winter fowl as they can find. Twitcher captain Becky Suomala says rarer species earn more points.

 

"You will see us with our scopes set up, looking in the scopes, probably trying to find something we haven't seen yet. So once we've seen one common eider, we ignore all other common eiders."

 

She says it's possible recent cold weather will give teams in more temperate areas an edge -- the competition spans New Hampshire's Rockingham County and Essex County in Massachusetts. 

 

The Twitchers' record for Rye is 63 species, spotted in their first birding Superbowl appearance 10 years ago. 

 

Annie has covered the environment, energy, climate change and the Seacoast region for NHPR since 2017. She leads the newsroom's climate reporting project, By Degrees.

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.