We are Tucson Audubon Society's Invasive Plants Strike Team and CoATIS (COllaborative Audubon Treatment and Inventory Squad)! Sure, our picture may be upside-down, but that's for the computer-savy office staff to figure out (oh wait, that's me!). More than a dozen of us are the full-time staff team that complete the hard physical work of removing and controlling invasive and non-native plants so that our Restoration Team can come in behind us and plant new native plants that we know our precious Sonoran Desert birds love. The Strike Team operates primarily in the urban and rural environments ensuring your rangelands and homes are protected from fires and are providing diverse and healthy wildlife habitat while our CoATIS operate deep into our public lands to help restore and protect areas where we both love to recreate and want to keep conserved as migratory pathways, nesting sites for vulnerable species, and more!

Keep an eye on our page for how we plan to rack up our birds. In the meantime, check below for how to make a bird pledge for when we get out birding! We've got some pretty new birders so take advantage of that! A pledge of $1 for every new life bird will go a long way and finally motivate our staff to get their eBird accounts set up!

Our Birdathon and Trip Report:

• Our Team has four main locations where we'll be birding in a Big Day: Freestyle -type format on April 17th: Lakeside Park, Lincoln Park, SHARP, and the Gabe Zimmerman trail into Cienega Creek. 
• 2024 Trip Report for our team can be found here. 53 species! Woohoo!
  • We also saw a coyote early in the morning, got at least 5 different waterbirds (see pledge below), and had 4 new stinknet sites...which is unfortunate, but also thanks to our generous donor, helped us secure a little more in donations!

Pledges:

• Marcia Grand: $10/species and
  • $150 if you get all four (all must be ID’d and actually seen not just heard): snake, lizard, ground squirrel, rabbit
  • $150 if you see a coyote
  • $150 if you see five different types of waterbirds: ducks, cormorants, shore birds, grebes, herons, etc – anything that swims or is comfortable in the water.
  • And just for your team - $50 for every brand new Stinknet Site you find on the day you are birding. But it really has to be new.

Donations:

• Hit that green DONATE button for a one-time donation towards our team! (the Pledges are way more fun, though)

Thank you for supporting the team! If you're more interested in the work itself, reach out to Tony Figueroa, Senior Invasive Plants Program Manager, for a consultation for your HOA, individual home, or any property you manage (public, private, or other!) and to learn how we can help you with your invasive plant management goals! He can be reached at tfigueroa@tucsonaudubon.org