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2018 SuperB Owl Winners – Top 10

It was a long year of hard work and dedication, with participants from across the country vying to win the ultimate prize on SuperB Owl Sunday. Would it be the established veteran, winning yet another title? Or perhaps a young, local upstart?  Fans from across the country enjoyed a heck of a competition, but a winner was finally crowned.

With that, here are the final rankings in this year’s SuperB Owl competition!  The young underdog scored upset after upset in the final playoffs, winning the title in a closely contested match. Congrats to this year’s SuperB Owl winner…a winking Northern Saw-whet Owl, taken at Newton Hills State Park in South Dakota!!

Northern Saw-whet Owl - Aegolius acadicus

Northern Saw-whet Owl – Newton Hills, South Dakota – 41 (quite arbitrary) points

Snowy Owl - Bubo scandiacus

2nd place – Yawning Snowy Owl – Near Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 33 points

Long-eared Owl - Asio otus

3rd Place – Long-eared Owl – Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota – 30 points

Northern Hawk Owl - Surnia ulula

4th place – Northern Hawk Owl – Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota – 28 points

Elf Owl - Micrathene whitneyi

5th place – Elf Owl – Near Tucson, Arizona – 25 points

Short-eared Owl - Asio flammeus

6th place – Short-eared Owl – Minnehaha County, South Dakota – 20 points

Burrowing Owl - Athene cunicularia

7th Place – Burrowing Owl – Near Brandon, South Dakota – 15 points

Great Grey Owl - Strix nebulosa

8th place – Great Grey Owl – Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota – 12 points

Eastern Screech Owl - Megascops asio

9th place – Eastern Screech Owl – Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 10 points

Barred Owl - Strix varia

10th place – Barred Owl – Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota – 7 points

Eegads! A birdless week!!

No birds! No birding! The magical birding month of May, and a whole week without either! An unthinkable circumstance in nearly any situation!

This past week was indeed a rare May week for me where I did absolutely no birding, and it was definitely for a good reason. My son was competing in the World Finals of the “Odyssey of the Mind” competition in East Lansing, Michigan all week. Their team finished first in state for the right to compete in the World Finals, and it was our first time doing so. It was well worth a birdless week, even for a bird nut such as myself!

If you’re not familiar with Odyssey of the Mind, it’s billed as a ‘creative competition’. It consists of two parts. First, there are typically 6 problems presented to the kids many months before the competition starts. The kids choose one of the problems, and come up with a short skit that represents their solution to the problem. The second component is called “Spontaneous”, where at the competition itself, the team is presented a problem and are only given a few minutes to come up with a solution.

The World Finals brought 847 teams from across the globe to compete, including teams from Togo, Switzerland, Poland, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, South Korea, Great Britain, Germany, and more. Michigan State campus was pretty much owned by the kids these weeks, including all the dorms where the kids and parents stayed. One big highlight for our kids…they signed up for a “buddy team” and were given a team from Japan. What an incredible experience. We saw each other’s presentations, hung out in the dorms with them, and ate with them. A highlight was a formal Japanese tea ceremony, where the kids on our team were each individually, formally served tea, and then were taught to perform the ceremony for each of the Japanese boys!

A wonderful experience, and DEFINITELY worth a birdless week! I’m back now though…where are those binoculars… 😉

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