Champions of the Flyway 2016 – Award winners!

The Champions of the Flyway project is unique in many ways. Project coordinator Jonathan Meyrav summarized it nicely:

“Besides being a challenging race that requires strong birding and route planning skills, COTF is an event that is steered by a few but executed by many. The Champions project encourages and promotes sharing, caring and working together to achieve a greater goal. We feel that birding and conservation go hand-in-hand and that the “power of many” plays a significant role in the project’s success. The fact that thousands of people worldwide feel part of the project helps the message echo stronger and to reach broader crowds, only together can we tackle the illegal killing of birds along the flyways, one place at a time!”

We are proud to announce the following awards.

“The Champions of the Flyway” Award

The team that observed the highest number of species.

• The ZEISS Arctic Redpolls are the new Champions of the Flyway. This was the second year for the Redpolls, who came in hungry and determined to beat their 2015 record of second place.

“The Guardians of the Flyway” Award

The team that raised the most for the cause!

International Winner:

• The ZEISS Bird-watcher’s Digest WAY-OFF COURSERS!  The Coursers raised a whopping $12,500 and helped make this a record year! Bill Thompson III, Alvaro Jaramillo, Ben Lizdas and Mark Cocker.

Israeli winner:

• The “Terns” from Ma’agan Michael that raised more than $3000 for the cause in Israel!

“The Knights of the Flyway” Award:

This special award goes to the team that did the most for the project before and during race day itself.

We felt that despite winning another category the 2016 Knights award goes to

• The ZEISS Bird-watcher’s Digest WAY-OFF COURSERS!
  The Coursers led by team captain Bill Thompson III donated time and resources to write, compose and promote the official anthem for the Champions project. The team was backed by the fantastic “Rain Crows” band and an ace production team that really took the message far. During the race day itself the Coursers decided to undertake a “green big day” and spent the entire 24 hours on foot at the IBRCE sanctuary. The team walked 10-miles during the day, found many birds, helped the other teams to “collect” and was a natural hub for the media and birders visiting the sanctuary.
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Ladies and Gents, we bow down to you for a fantastic 2016 Champions campaign!