Birdathon weekend

Heading off to do the annual birdathon on the northern itp of the Bruce Peninsula with Rod.  Please read my request below and consider sponsoring me.

Birdathon sponsorship makes our migration monitoring possible!

Understanding the state of our birds requires good data – the type that comes from the network of migration monitoring stations across Canada.  I’ve been involved as a founding board member, past president and current vice president for the entire 12 years history of the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory (www.bpbo.ca)

The key program of Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory (BPBO) is our migration monitoring efforts at the Cabot Head research station. Through this program we are able to track the migration of birds through Cabot Head each spring and fall. You can see the value of this work in the rich information in our 10 year report that we completed this year and is available on our website. This is also the type of information that allows us to understand the status of our birds. An important cost associated with this activity is support that we provide to long-term volunteers, those who commit to spending 3 weeks or more volunteering their time to the operation of our migration monitoring station. This 3 week commitment is important, as 3 weeks of intensive training elevates a volunteer’s skills significantly to the point that they are making a very positive contribution. We offer all long-term volunteers free accomodation and a $10 per day food stipend. We ideally like to have 3 volunteers at the station during operations, so this cost could potentially add up over 50 days in the spring and 70 days in the fall to $3600 (usually more like $2500 to $3000 as we rarely have complete coverage).

Your sponsorship of me, and the BPBO President’s Choice team, will directly offset some of these costs. The more that you sponsor the team, the higher the proportion of funds that flow back to BPBO (a portion goes into the James L. Baillie Memorial Fund).

Consistent with the last several years, I will be doing birdathon as part of the BPBO “President’s choice” team that will include myself, Rod Steinacher and friends and family. Last year, birding with Salvadora Morales and Andrew Sawyer, we observed 135 species on the very upper tip of the Bruce Peninsula between Dyer’s Bay and Tobermory. Though we will drive a bit, driving will be minimal. I would greatly appreciate your support for this fundraiser as it means so much to our little organization. We will start around 3H30 am and finish around 11 pm, so work hard that day.

Sponsoring me is simple, go to the birdathon homepage http://birdscanada.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1048292, click on sponsor a participant, and enter my name. At that point just follow instructions and do it on-line. I’ll provide all with an account of the day that likely will be published on the BPBO webpage www.bpbo.ca.

Many thanks for your kind support.  It is genuinely appreciated and motivates me to go that extra mile:)

Ted