Please join us in congratulating Jukka Jantunen of the Yukon Territory, Canada—winner of the June 2023 eBird Challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. Jukka’s name was drawn randomly from the 3,070 eBirders who submitted at least 20 eligible checklists with species comments in June. Jukka will receive a new ZEISS SFL 8×40 binocular for his eBirding efforts. Here’s Jukka’s birding story:
I started birding as a young boy just about 50 years ago in the early 70s largely thanks to my parents who spent most of their free time out in the nature. By high school birding had turned into a passion that has lasted my whole life. In those years during spring and fall I would go migration watching on most days, either before school or after, and once summer holiday started I switched to nocturnal life, bicycling through night counting rails, owl broods and such before going bird banding in the morning.
Lagden’s Bushshrike © Jukka Jantunen / Macaulay Library
Some 25 years ago I moved from my native Finland to the Yukon Territory in Canada where I still reside. The latitude is exactly the same as in Finland but the climate more continental and colder making winter birding hard but spring that much more exciting! Migration watching is still my most favorite form of birding but most of the banding these days is part of my work. I am lucky to be able to make living as a bird biologist partaking in many interesting projects from running the field operations of Teslin Lake Bird Observatory to working with Trumpeter Swans, Rusty Blackbirds and Upland Sandpipers among others for both the federal and territorial governments.
Hudsonian Godwit © Jukka Jantunen / Macaulay Library
I have been using eBird for over a decade averaging about a thousand checklists a year. For many years I was the sole reviewer for Finland but now there is an excellent team of reviewers there. Thanks to the hard work of the app developers data entry is smooth and it has become a second nature to pull out my phone and start a checklist right away at any outdoor location. eBird is a great data depository and one that I actively advocate for.