23 April 2015

Here is a pdf of our adventures on April 23

All our photos from this year's birdathon are here.

7 April 2015

Ginger and I will be out there with the birdies in a little over two weeks!

The summer birds are starting to show up, and the winter birds haven’t all left, but a lot can happen in two weeks. I expect most of the winter birds to be gone by the time we are birdathon-ing.

The other day we were hiking at Stevens Creek County Park and we happened upon a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nest. That’s one of the harder-to-get birds, so if the nest is still active, we have a good chance of getting this bird!

15 March 2015

Dear friends, family and colleagues,

On Thursday, April 23, The Jack Sparrows (that’s Ginger and me) will again be doing a full day Birdathon in support of the Santa Clara Audubon Society. This is our twelfth time participating in this fun event.

And like last year, we don’t know what the birds will be up to: the drought continues and that affects bird populations, locations and behaviors. We keep having early summer-like days which may encourage the birds to migrate early, but then, it’s all speculation at this point. We are still hearing Cedar Waxwings, White-crowned Sparrows and Pine Siskins in our neighborhood — will they linger for another month? We’ll see...

As usual, we plan to hit as many different habitats as possible, starting out before dawn and ending after dark, all while keeping within the county boundaries and the 24-hour time limit. Our goal is to identify at least 120 species and photograph at least 100 species.

If you’d like to help, please consider sponsoring our team (The Jack Sparrows), or Ginger or Barry individually. All donations go to help the Santa Clara County Audubon Society's science education programs and conservation efforts. All pledges are tax deductible, as the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For more information, see http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=birdathon. If you would like to support this cause, you can send Barry email pledging an amount per species (e.g. 25¢/species seen or species photographed) or a fixed amount or any special pledges (e.g. $1 for every bird of prey, etc.). You can also donate via PayPal by clicking the "Donate Now" button at http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=birdathon_sponsor

For those of you whose places of employment have corporate matching (Apple is one), you can get your company to match whatever you donate.

Last year we were in the top five for raising money for the Audubon Society and Barry ranked second in species photographed (107 species). We got rained on a lot last year, and you know, we’re okay with that happening again this year — we could really use the rain! Last year's official results are at http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=birdathon_results .

Our previous years' adventures are documented at http://www.voyageropen.org/nature/birding/ . Here's a summary:

• 2014: The Jack Sparrows were back doing 24-hour a birdathon, identifying 122 species; photographing 107 species
• 2013: The Jack Sparrows did a short 4-hour birdathon, identifying 92 species and photographing 64 species
• 2012: Barry birded with the Varied Twitchers, identified 170 species and photographed a record 125 species
• 2011: The Jack Sparrows again competed, saw 118 species and photographed 99 species
• 2010: The Jack Sparrows return to find 119 species
• 2009: Barry birded with the Varied Twitchers, but only got a half-day in as he was sick (120 species)
• 2008: The Jack Sparrows won the "most eco-friendly" birdathon category (129 species)
• 2007: Second birdathon for the Jack Sparrows (126 species)
• 2006: The Jack Sparrows' first birdathon (125 species)
• 2005: The Varied Twitchers birdathon (157 species)
• 2004: Barry's first birdathon was with the Varied Twitchers in 2004, which is documented at http://www.voyageropen.org/nature/birding/birdathon_spring_2004/ (158 species)

Thank you for all your support in years past and we are excited about another fun birding adventure this year.

Barry & Ginger Langdon-Lassagne
The Jack Sparrows!

p.s. Please feel free to forward to anyone you think might be interested.
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