[TN-Bird] Volunteer Opportunity: Survey Birds on National Wildlife Refuges

From: Allan Mueller <akcmueller@xxxxxxxxx>
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:31:56 -0500
The National Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Need
Your Help this Spring: Participate in Audubon's Waterbird Watch
Program.

Because of the Deep Horizon oil catastrophe, the gulf coastal
environment-especially bird habitat-has been degraded.  With spring
migration underway, we are concerned about the use of that habitat by
migrants and are seeking volunteers to survey birds at
select National Wildlife Refuges in five southeastern states.

Last fall, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Audubon started a new bird monitoring program called Audubon's
Waterbird Watch.  Volunteers surveyed a handful of National Wildlife
Refuges, which had been actively managed to attract waterbirds and
other migrants and provide additional stopover habitat.  This data
collection is an important part of our ongoing work to document
impacts of the oil spill on birds and their habitats and also to
better understand how birds are using inland locations during
migration.  We are now starting the program back up for the spring
migration season, focusing on National Wildlife Refuges that are also
Important Bird Areas.

We will be using a survey protocol that Audubon developed to count
birds and monitor habitat use by migrant shorebirds, as well as all
other birds encountered.  Data will be stored in eBird, where it will
be immediately available to the public, Audubon, USFWS, and other
federal and state agencies for analysis.  We need experienced birders
and those willing to learn who would be available to do these surveys
three times a month from now until the end of spring migration, and
possibly into early summer.  Ideally, volunteers should be relatively
close to the refuges (see list on the registration form) so that
transportation to and from the refuge will not be an issue, and so
housing is not a factor.  If you are interested in this exciting
opportunity to participate in this Audubon/Fish & Wildlife Service
partnership survey on National Wildlife Refuges in Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, and Arkansas, please follow
the link below to a short registration form.  The refuge monitoring
surveys will complement the existing Audubon Coastal Bird Survey
program that some of you may already be participating in.  We will
monitor three refuges in Tennessee – Reelfoot, Cross Creeks, and Tennessee.

 Register here:  www.audubonaction.org/refugesurvey

We will collect registrations and select volunteers based on
experience, location, and availability.  We will select a small team
of volunteers and alternates per refuge.  We will be conducting
Waterbird Watch trainings to kick off the program and make sure
volunteers are comfortable with bird ID, the protocol, the sites, etc.
 More detailed information on the trainings will be coming soon, but
we need to know how many folks are interested first.  We hope to get
volunteers out to trainings and doing surveys within the next couple
of weeks.

For questions or more information, please send an email to
audubonaction@xxxxxxxxxxx  or contact me at

Allan Mueller
akcmueller@xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your interest; we look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely yours,

Audubon's Gulf Response Team

 P.S. Please feel free to forward this message to others who might be
interested.
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[TN-Bird] Volunteer Opportunity: Survey Birds on National Wildlife Refuges

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