PRBO wants bird census volunteers
Sun, 28 Nov 1999 20:45:28 -0800
From: Larry Tunstall
The Point Reyes Bird Observatory, East Bay Regional Park District, and East Bay Municipal Utilities District are beginning a long-term study of terrestrial bird communities in the East Bay. The goal is to learn how rapid population growth and economic development with resulting fragmentation of habitat are affecting song birds. Are birds adapting to increasingly isolated patches of suitable habitat, or are the populations declining?
This project is a component of the Partners in Flight Project, a collaborative effort of state, federal, and private organizations concerned with songbird declines. The methodology will involve area search censuses. A plot is chosen to contain a single habitat type, and three different nearby plots are combined into a census area. A volunteer or team of volunteers are assigned to visit this area several times during the breeding season and count the birds found there. The counting is restricted to 20 minutes for each plot, so counting the area should take only one morning.
Volunteers must agree to
attend a 2- to 3-hour training workshop,
learn to identify specified bird species by sight and sound,
make at least 3 visits to the census area in April through July.
Moderate hiking may be involved.
If you would like to volunteer or learn more about the project, call Pete Goldman at (510) 649-9029.
You will find more information about Partners in Flight at
http://www.prbo.org/
Posted to EBbird by Larry Tunstall, El Cerrito