Lahontan Valley Shorebird Survey Training

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded a grant to the National Audubon Society (NAS) for its Saline Lakes Program on a project aimed at conserving shorebirds and their important habitat within the Lahontan Valley.  NAS, Lahontan Audubon, along with Manomet, will work closely with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and US Fish & Wildlife Service to identify habitat needs for 11 priority shorebird species;  examine the habitat management units at Carson Lake and Stillwater in order to identify impediments to and opportunities for improving shorebird management; and improve capacity for monitoring shorebird populations.
 
The Lahontan Audubon Society is focused on improving the capacity for monitoring shorebird populations.  Dr. Alan Gubanich and Mike Goddard are recruiting community science volunteers to monitor shorebird populations. We successfully conducted surveys during the fall migration and will be holding a training for new volunteers for spring surveys. The shorebird identification training program will focus on 22 species, along with some of the rare or uncommon shorebird species we might have the opportunity to see in the field. We will host two classroom sessions (2/19 & 2/26 at 2:00-4:00) at Moana Nursery and two field trips (3/12 & 3/19) to the wetlands as part of the program.  We will teach volunteers techniques for navigating to a point, conducting a point count, and accurately recording data. We can provide spotting scopes, binoculars, field guides and GPS units.