We are Tucson Audubon Society's Invasive Plants Strike Team and CoATIS (COllaborative Audubon Treatment and Inventory Squad)! 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 three main locations where we'll be birding in a very informal Big Day: Freestyle -type format. We'll start the morning racking up species at Sweetwater Wetlands, then mosey over to Sabino Canyon for some true desert animals, wrap up the day completing invasive plant removal (as we're prone to do), then hit the evening birding up on the mountain. It will be 24-hours, but we'll certainly sleep a little on the mountain!
- We have only a couple staff that actively use eBird. See one of our trip reports here. Other data from our Big Day coming soon once we compile our lists!
Fearless leader Tony Figueroa decided to do his Birdathon in Florida (high hopes for big lizards there!). Here's what he had:
Daytona beach, Florida
Hotel area
Boat-tailed grackle
Rock pigeon (one was exploring under tarps on a roof. )
Brown Pelicans
European starling
House sparrow
Fish crow
Halifax river
Great Blue Herron
Yellow Crowned Night-Heron
Bald eagle
Great egret
Osprey
Laughing Gull
Barn swallow
Tricolored heron
Red bellied woodpecker
Northern cardinal
White Ibis
Common yellow throat
Chimney swift
Swallow-tailed kite
Red-tailed Hawk
Ponce inlet/lighthouse
Carolina wren
Black vulture
Snowy egret
Ruddy turnstone
Least tern
Common tern
Ormand beach
Willet
Semipalmated sandpiper
Muscovy duck
Black skimmer
Semipalmated plover
Nighttime—
Chuck wills widow
Night Hawk
Great horned owl
Barred owl
Reptile
Green anole (Anolis carolinensis)
Gopher tortoise
Mammal
Bottle nosed dolphin
Invertebrates
Square backed marsh crab - Armases cinereum
Oysters
Pledges:
- 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.
Donations:
- Hit that green DONATE button for a one-time donation towards our team! (the Pledges are way more fun, though)
- Thanks to Deb Turski for your donation so far!
Thank you for supporting the team! If you're more interested in the work itself, reach out to Tony Figueroa, 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
