Note: This is a new version of a March 8 diary I did for a Sunday Dawn Chorus. Please indulge a reprint here so that it can hit mid-week eyes who might not have seen a Sunday bird diary. We are almost at our goal of $2,000, so let's get that amount today!
American Avocet feeding
It's springtime, and you know what that means.... Birds!
It also means it's time for our annual fund-raising plea to help raise money for Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. Yes, it's time for our Birdathon!
As we did last year, we'll be doing a "big sit," in which our team will stay within a prescribed circle and count all the species we see from that point. We won't be counting the numbers of individual birds, as with the Christmas Bird Count, but just the number of species. Our team leader, Stephanie Ellis, says she hopes we will see about 45 different species in our 4-hour time slot. Count day for our team, the Data Sets, is Sunday, April 12.
We will be counting between Charleston Slough and Shoreline Lake in Mountain View on south San Francisco Bay.
Count location at Charleston Slough
But this is more than shoreline and wetland habitat. There are grasslands and fields, and outstanding raptor habitat. We'll get Northern Harriers as well as Northern Shovelers.
Recently we scoped out the area, in preparation, so following are a few of the birds we might see on our count:
Anna's Hummingbird
Eared Grebe
Horned Grebe
I think this is a Short-billed Dowitcher
Black-necked Stilts
American Avocets
Overall shot of the Charleston Slough wetlands
Please Support Our Birdathon!
The Birdathon is a fundraiser for SCVAS, and we need your help. Kossacks have been most generous in the past by offering sponsorship donations to the cause.
Won't you please help out again? SCVAS needs our help, and my wife and I need your help. I'm setting a goal to raise at least $2,000 this year, which would be a personal record for us. As of this writing, we are about $200 short of our goal, so I know we can go over the top today with your help.
As one of the leading environmental organizations in the San Francisco Bay area, SCVAS will put your donations to very good use.
But I especially like that one of the biggest uses of the funds goes to bring kids to birds.
The Wetlands Discovery Program involves a bit of docent-led classroom training, followed up by a school field trip to learn about birds in nearby wetlands along the shores of the South Bay.
For many of these kids, especially the underprivileged ones, this field trip is often their first exposure to birds in their natural habitat, that is, other than the Rock Pigeons, House Sparrows, and European Starlings they might see in their neighborhoods.
I believe that if you start people loving nature at an early age, that can carry through their entire life, and SCVAS is helping do that with the Wetlands Discovery Program. And money raised today will go directly to this outstanding program.
See this link for other wildlife education efforts by SCVAS.
SCVAS is also a leader in habitat and wildlife protection. The group is leading a desperate fight locally to protect Burrowing Owls because the birds' habitat is continually being eroded by property developers. They are fighting a proposed development in nearby Redwood City that would be very destructive to wetlands. And they are working with wind-power proponents to help ensure that power-generating windmills are safe for birds and other wildlife.
How to Donate
Donating is very simple. If you want to pay by check, please use Kosmail and drop me a note. I'll get back to you with information about that.
Otherwise, please go to this Sponsor a Team Member page. After the page opens up, use the pulldown above the "Donate Now" button to select my wife's name, Carolyn Straub. After her name is in the box, click the Donate Now button and you'll be taken to another page where you can fill in credit card or PayPal information.
You can be assured that all money raised goes directly to SCVAS, and your donation is fully tax-deductible.
You can see what great things SCVAS does with the money raised in the Birdathon. They really need our help to fund these various programs. So, please be as generous as you can, and every amount helps! If all you have is $5, then please pitch in that $5; if you can donate $100, that's even better!
Another thing you can do that would help, even if you're not able to donate, would be to send this diary out on Facebook and Twitter, or even simply to email it to family and friends who might be willing to donate. The more people who see it, the more money we can raise.
Thank you very much for whatever you do; we couldn't do it without you! Help us reach our goal today!