So, it’s Spring again and I am excited to be a member of the Wrenegades birding team, with the opportunity to raise money for a worthy organization and have fun at the same time.  This year, we’re planning to maximize the fun by prioritizing our time birding and less time driving.

I do this to raise money for the Tucson Audubon Society, because I believe in the work it does for environmental conservation and education/outreach.  While letting me pretend to still be a scientist, collecting and analyzing data on bird populations in the southwest borderlands, I have also been able to participate in projects ranging from putting webcams in nest boxes to using voice-recognition software to find specific vocalizations amongst hundreds of hours of our sound recordings from the field.  In this coming year, I’m hoping to help with new projects in analyzing eBird data to follow bird populations, apply some new programs to analyze bird song, and see what other technology developments can be used to help us to help birds.  I really appreciate your support in the past and I’m asking you to again contribute towards those goals.

Pledges:

• John Bartley: $1/species and $5/owl species
• Stephen Helentjaris: $50 for every Falcon seen
• Marcia Grand: $10/species; $100 for a rattler; $150 for 3 species Tiny Owls; $100 for 3 species frogs; $150 for a Large Lizard like a Gila Monster, Desert Iguana, Chuckwalla, etc; $150 for any 3 – javelina, coyote, bobcat, racoon, jackrabbit, skunk, deer, coatimundi; $10 for each working nest; $150 for one saguaro with an active nest in it; $150 for any 5 hummingbirds; $250 for mountain lion.
• Betty & Pete Bengston: $150
• Ruth Morton & Hal Bush: $1,000