The Tenth Annual NORTH COAST OPEN, sponsored by the Toledo Naturalists’ Association, ended at 9 PM Saturday night (May 15) at the Blackberry Corner’s Restaurant, after 21 hours of team birding.

With the highest team total of 146 species, the winners of Peregrine Cup were THE WOODCOCKS (Captain Steve Stockford, Joe “The Unknown Birder” Fausnaugh, Craig “Needs a Nickname” Nilsson, and Todd “BigBirdBeak” Haggard).

Trailing the leaders were: Birders of Prey (Jim Witter, Captain)—96, Caymanlast (Martha Dennis, Captain)—103, Fly By Nights—129 (Nancy Bucher, Captain), Sitting Ducks (Mike Gordon, Captain)—129, and the Daylids (John Chadwick, Captain)—130.

Teams participating in the “anything goes” Freestyle Division were the (Millerless) Miller Time (Chuck and Terri Anderson)—156 species, and the (always embarrassing to the grownups) Swarm of Andersons (Major Matt Anderson and six Minor Andersons)—159.

Congratulations to all the participants for their birding dedication on a chilly, gray day.

The combined list of all the bird species seen and/or heard by all the teams between midnight and 9 PM in Lucas, Ottawa, Wood, Sandusky and Erie Counties, was 195 species. Highlights include White Pelican, both bitterns, Snowy and Cattle egrets, Little Blue Heron, Avocet, Wilson’s Phalarope, Orange-crowned and Prothonotary Warblers, Summer tanager, Henslow’s Sparrow, Lapland Longspur, and Western Meadowlark.