Please join us in congratulating Chloe Marshall of Castro, Chile, winner of the February 2017 eBird Challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. Our February winner was drawn from eBirders who were a part of a shared eligible eBird checklist in February. Chloe’s name was drawn randomly from the 104,128 eligible checklists submitted by 11,881 eBirders who achieved the February challenge threshold. Chloe will receive new ZEISS Conquest HD 8×42 binoculars for her eBirding efforts. We asked Chloe to tell us a little more about herself, her use of eBird, and her love of birds – read on for more.
I have always loved spending hours at a time roaming the outdoors, but I never paid much attention to birds besides ‘that’s a pretty one’ or ‘that mean one ate my pet chicken!’ That is, until last year when a friend (who is an eBirder) lent my brother a bird field guide. With that resource, I began trying to identify some of the common birds in my yard back in Kansas, and I gradually became more and more interested. In early February 2017 my brother, Caleb Marshall, encouraged me to get an eBird account. Since I got one I have been doing a lot more birding. Already I have found eBird to be an excellent place to keep organized checklists and to search for photos. And the sound recordings have been especially helpful.
Dark-bellied Cinclodes by Chloe Marshall
As a new daily habit, Caleb and I walk down to the canal shore here on Chiloe island and go birding — Caleb with his binoculars (a birthday gift from his eBird friend) and me with a camera. Here is a checklist from one of those occasions: https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34595184
Hudsonian Godwit by Chloe Marshall
Thank you Cornell Lab and eBird teams for making this useful website, and Kaleb Kroeker for introducing my brother and me to birding. And thank you Zeiss Sports Optics for your generous gift. I have never had my own pair of binoculars, and I am very excited!