Volunteers will be out at 7 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 17, looking for hawks, geese, ducks, wrens and a variety of other species at the Watershed Institute’s 10th annual winter bird count at Upper Carr Lake in Salinas.

Everyone is welcome to help during the three-hour count.

The lake, on East Laurel Drive between Constitution Boulevard and Sanborn Road, is a resting stop for migratory birds. In 2014, volunteers from CSU Monterey Bay’s Return of the Natives project identified more than 70 species, including American coots, yellow-rumped warblers, a few egrets and several varieties of hawks.

Participants will be provided with a data sheet on the birds of Monterey County, published by the Monterey Peninsula Audubon Society, and a pair of binoculars.

After the bird count, volunteers are invited to help clean up the lake from 10 a.m. to noon. Tools, water and snacks will be provided.

“We are happy to see that this growing environment fosters an accommodating habitat for birds – which emphasizes the purpose of the second half of the morning – to keep Upper Carr Lake clean and healthy to keep the birds coming back,” said Alyssa Schaan, volunteer coordinator with Return of the Natives Restoration Education Project.

The local bird survey is one of 2,100 similar counts over the last month. As many as 55,000 National Audubon Society volunteers from Guam to Labrador and from Alaska to Chile slog through the woods, find their way up mountains or look out their kitchen windows for the squawking, quacking and tweeting flocks.

Return of the Natives will submit the information it gathers to California eBird, the Audubon Society’s online database.

The Return of the Natives restoration project is the education and outreach branch of the Watershed Institute at CSUMB. RON's environmental goal is to protect the waters of the Monterey Bay through restoration of the waterways and the lands draining into the bay. RON's social goal is to bring people and nature together on its restoration and garden projects in the watersheds of the Monterey Bay.

For more information, call 582-3686.