It’s that time of year again, Purgatory Fans! No, not nesting season, although that is indeed underway and this year we are happy to announce we have Red-Winged Blackbirds for the first time in three years.
For the third year in a row, we are hosting a very special Birdathon team.
What is a Birdathon you ask? You know those bike-a-thons or walk-a-thons that fundraise for a charitable cause? Well, a Birdathon is the same thing, only instead of counting laps, miles or steps, people count birds.
For over thirty years, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society organizes their largest fundraiser of the year, the Spring Birdathon. This event raises funds solely for their educational programs such as the Wetlands Discovery Program, and offering free educational programs to Title 1 schools. Fundraising primarily is done by teams, each of which selects a single day within the event window, and on that day heads out to the location(s) to birdwatch.
You can support this event in several ways:
Pledge money to support my team–consider pledging on a per-bird basis to a specific team or simply by making a flat donation to SCVAS.
You can join my team, Purgatorial Birds and Lunch. My team has a super-magical twist: bird anywhere in the county in the morning and then journey to the ranch to share sightings and enjoy lunch, taking in the views of the entire valley and compiling the final team list. This is the one time of the year when we are open to the general public. During the visit, I’ll cover the ranch’s history and the work we have done since mid-2015 to restore native habitats–what was once an overgrazed wasteland is at any given time home to at least 45 different species of birds, and even more astounding is that, to date, we have documented over 100 species.
More info and the link to join are here.
And to Support the team use this link. Perhaps $1 for every bird species?
You can also contact me directly via email: stega@purgatory.org
