Point Reyes Bird Observatory is recruiting dedicated birders to assist with our Sacramento River fall migration monitoring program. Volunteers will participate in area search censuses on designated sites along the river, primarily units of the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge.

Some plots are riparian forest, others are in the process of being restored from agriculture to riparian habitat by The Nature Conservancy.

Data collected will be used to compare bird use on forest and restoration sites and to gain a better overall picture of migration stopover usage of the Sacramento Valley. This project is conducted in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy.

Ideally, volunteers will commit one day a week (more or less) to conducting area searches, through October. An area serach consists of covering several small, adjacent plots in a morning and documenting all birds seen or heard. The observer spends 20 minutes covering each 3 hectare plot and, unlike point count surveys, the observer may move around to follow flocks or track down a chipping bird in the shrubs.

All volunteers will spend at least one morning accompanying a PRBO biologist on area searches, to review methods and bird identification. Skilled birders will then be assigned their own study plots. Novice or intermediate birders may volunteer to accompany our biogists throughout the season in order to develop their skills, as the area search method allows for multiple observers.

Study sites extend (roughly) from Los Molinos to Princeton. There may also be similar PRBO fall volunteer opportunities on the San Joaquin River. Finally, we will be seeking winter volunteers on the Sacramento River, depending upon the success of our fall volunteer program.

For more info, contact:

Jim DeStaebler (530)879-0765, jdestaebler@prbo.org

or

Heather Ristow (530)826-3054, saccrew@prbo.org (write "volunteer" in subject line)