Spring is upon us, and one of the most significant April activities is the Statewide Tricolored Blackbird Survey. This volunteer event on behalf of the state threatened species only occurs every three years, and the 2022 dates are April 15-17. The Yolo County Survey Coordinator is UC Davis graduate student Emilee Graves. She plans to survey 35 sites in the county. The only volunteer requirements to participate are that you’re available for some time period over the three days, that you know how to distinguish tricolors from Red-winged Blackbirds and that you have transportation. Please contact Emilee at (530) 574-6731 or eegraves@ucdavis.edu to learn more.
Xeronimo Castaneda, Audubon CA’s Tricolored Blackbird Conservation Project Manager, held a two-hour virtual training session on April 2 and has made it available for those who want to participate in the survey. In fact, I would recommend that you take a look here even if you just want to learn more about the species. It’s an excellent program.
Finally, as I mentioned last month, we’d like to encourage you to become a candidate for the Yolo Audubon Board of Directors. We’re losing several of our current board members and hope a few more new people will consider joining. Please email us at yoloaudu@yoloaudubon.org if you’d like to learn more. I would be happy to talk to you about the commitment, which isn’t too rigorous, is worthwhile, and actually even fun! The current board will vote on new board members at the May meeting, and terms will start in June 2022.