Lincoln woman wins $1,000 for being a top bird-watcher in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lincoln woman was honored Thursday for her success during Nebraska Bird Month in May.

Ruthie Stearns was able to locate 195 bird species out of the 454 Nebraska has in total.

She competed with 270 others in the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s first-ever Nebraska Birding Bowl.

“It was just really fun to have somebody paying attention to what I was doing,” she said. “It made me enjoy doing it all the more.”

The participants who met the requirements had their names put in a raffle for prizes, provided by the Wild Bird Habitat Stores.

Stearns won $1,000.

Contestants submitted over 2,900 observations to the community data service eBird, which will contribute to scientific research.

The event is part of the national wildlife viewer survey, which encourages people to go out into nature more often.

“Birders are one of the largest groups of wildlife watchers,” said Olivia DaRugna, a watchable wildlife at Game and Parks. “We had a great opportunity with Nebraska Birding Month in place, and we just cross-promoted and worked with the coordinators of that to have this event take place.”

Stearns is an avid bird watcher and always spends every May outside looking for them.

“I did it every single day, and I spent at least four hours, if not the whole day, bird-watching,” she said.

For more information and updates on next year’s Birding Bowl check out the Nebraska Game and Parks website.