We are three generations of bird lovers, and this is our first Birdathon with Tucson Audubon!

Cassin enjoys watching birds from his highchair over breakfast and dinner. His first birding excursion was a Christmas Bird Count at 4 weeks old, so it's no surprise that now, at 16 months, he loves pointing at the different birds he sees through the window and saying 'bye' when they fly away. Recent visitors to our yard include Black-Chinned, Broad-Billed, and Anna's Hummingbirds, and a family of Harris's Hawks (photos above)... though Cassin is equally excited to spot a pair of Mourning Doves on the telephone wire.

Our goal is to raise $1,000 to help protect birds and their environment. The incredible staff at Tucson Audubon work so hard to inspire people to enjoy and protect birds and their habit. Tucson Audubon has enriched our lives in so many ways: we've gone on organized bird walks at Sweetwater Wetlands, learned more about birds through Zoom lectures, searched for Elegant Trogons as part of a survey, seen Violet-Crowned Hummingbirds at the Paton Center, and shared sightings with fellow birders at each month's Birds & Beer gathering. Now it's our time to give back to Tucson Audubon. 

Here is what our team is planning for our Birdathon:

• Cassin (with the help of his parents) is going to count all the birds he can see from his highchair (our 'home patch') from April 8-May 8.
• Lissie & Dan (the parents) have a Big Day planned in Southeast Arizona on May 1. Stops will include Sweetwater Wetlands, Madera Canyon, and possibly more... details to come!
• Andrea & Peter (the grandparents) will be 'birding beyond Arizona' from the sunny shores of Carlsbad, CA. These two 'loony lagooners' will be birding the waterways of Southern California and beyond.

There are two ways you can contribute: you can make a fixed donation or you can pledge an amount per bird. You could pledge $0.25 for every hummingbird Cassin sees this month, or $1 for every red bird Dan and Lissie spot on their Big Day, or $5 for every shorebird Andrea & Peter photograph, or $10 for every Cassin's namesake bird that any of us sees (Cassin's Finch, Cassin's Kingbird, etc) ... let your imagination go wild! The zanier the challenge that you come up with, the more fun it is for all of us :)

BONUS: Sweets at Sweetwater! Come birding with Dan & Lissie & Cassin partway through their big day on Sunday, May 1 at Sweetwater Wetlands. Donation of $10 / family encouraged, we'll provide the sweets (homemade chocolate chip cookies, including gluten-free options). Email ejaquette@gmail.com if you're interested in joining us!

We'll be sharing updates, bird sightings, and photos with you here and by email. And thank YOU for supporting our Birdathon -- we are so grateful to you and your contributions to Tucson Audubon!

Pledges:

• Lissie Jaquette: $2/species seen from Cassin's highchair
• Marcia Grand: $10/species; $5 for every active nest (building, eggs, sitting, etc); $10 for every species of identified snake; $5 for every species of identified butterfly; $50 for a turtle; an extra $100 if you ID 5 or more hummingbird species; $500 for one eagle
• Linda McNulty: $1/species and $25 for an American Bittern
• Grandparents: $5/species; Have fun birding Cassin!
• Laura & David: $10 for every Cassin's species seen

UPDATE: What a month! We've wrapped up our Birdathon for Tucson Audubon and wanted to share some highlights with you. 

Cassin enjoyed watching birds from his highchair over breakfast and dinner throughout the month. He saw 26 different species of birds in total! Cass got really excited to point out birds that flew by, and has even begun to draw our attention to birds that he sees first—he was the one who spotted the Harris's Hawk and the Neotropic Cormorants flying over our yard! 

Dan and Lissie held their first ever 'Big Day,' attempting to see as many species of birds as they could in 24 hours. They went to six birding hotspots and saw 65 species—not bad for having a toddler in tow! Highlights of the day included birding with friends over 100 cookies at Sweetwater Wetlands, and catching sight of a beautiful Western Tanager that stopped in our yard. (Western Tanagers don't live here in Tucson, so it was very cool to see one pass through on migration, and with impeccable timing!) It's thanks to Cassin that we got species #65: he woke up crying at 3am, which is how Dan & Lissie were awake to hear a Great Horned Owl hooting outside the window.

Peter and Andrea (AKA the 'Loony Lagooners') chased after birds across numerous hotspots in California, from their local Batiquitos Lagoon, to Ramona Grasslands Preserve, to the marshland at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, up to Morro Bay. Highlights included watching aerial courtship displays of Bald Eagles, and seeing two cormorant rookeries. Andrea even went the extra mile—an extra 9 miles in fact!—on a pelagic tour off the California coast, where she saw all kinds of birds that make their home over the open ocean.

The team as a whole saw a whopping total of 179 species during the month. (If you want to nerd out and see the full list, you can find it on our eBird trip report, where you can also see lots of photos that might give you a sense of why we love birding so much.)

Some of you also challenged us with fun pledges, and we had a great time chasing them down: our team found 232 active nests, several turtles, and 6 hummingbird species (Anna's, Allen's, Black-chinned, Broad-billed, Rivoli's, and Violet-crowned). Andrea found an elusive American Bittern after much searching, and each of the team members saw an eagle! Dan, Lissie, and Cassin also spotted a Cassin's Kingbird—the bird he was named after—at Parker Canyon Lake.

If you've made it this far, we truly commend you :) And while our birding is over, there's still time to chip in a few bucks for Tucson Audubon if you're so inclined, via the green 'Donate' button at the top right of this page. Our target was to raise $1000, and thanks to all of you we're on track to raise over $3000! We couldn't be more excited to have such a big impact on preserving birds and their habitat here in the Sonoran Desert, and we sure had a lot of fun in the process. A huge thanks to those of you who have already donated!