Jan. 11, 2010

*******CSUMB's Return of the Natives project sponsors annual event Jan. 16***

Volunteers will be out at 8 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, looking for hawks, geese, ducks, wrens and a variety of other species at the Watershed Institute's fourth annual winter bird count at Upper Carr Lake in Salinas. Everyone is welcome to help during the two-hour count.

The lake, on East Laurel Drive between Constitution Boulevard and Sanborn Road, is a resting stop for migratory birds. In 2009, volunteers from Return of the Natives counted 70 species – two more than the previous year – 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 Aya Obara, an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow with Return of the Natives.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 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.

For more information and a map, visit watershed.csumb.edu/ron or call 582-3686.