I know there are many things pulling at you right now, people and events asking for your donations... for Japanese relief, Netroots for the Troops, Hill Country Ride for AIDS, political favorites, and much more.
Well, add me to the list!
I need your help to save birds, teach kids about nature, and provide funding for vital environmental protection.
Great Egret near Alviso Slough
I am participating in an annual fundraising "birdathon" on behalf of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, and I'm asking for your donations.
SCVAS is one of the leading environmental groups in the San Jose area, and I have been an active member for about 10 years.
A birdathon is real simple. Next month I will be part of a team that will go out for half a day and count all the bird species we see, and I need you to donate to this cause. You can either give a set amount, or a specific amount per species seen.
That is, you could give a flat fee of, say, $25, or you could give a dollar, or more, per species. Our group hopes to see more than 30 different species.
This page gives more information about the birdathon itself.
And it is real simple to sponsor my efforts. You can do it all online, and I'll even "come out" of my Kos identity to tell you my real name! (Now, doesn't that make it all worthwhile, right there?)
To donate online, go to this SCVAS website.
From there, use the pull-down in the middle of the page to select my name (Steve McHenry) and then select the Donate Now button.
After you hit Donate Now you will be able to make a pledge on my behalf using either PayPal or a credit card. You can be assured that I receive nothing from any donation; everything that you give will go directly to Santa Clara Valley Audubon.
Please give any amount you can, but of course more is better. Surely everybody reading this today can donate $5, or $10, or $25, or maybe even $100 or more! Whatever you can spare will be very much appreciated. And of course, all donations are fully tax-deductible!
We have an interesting day planned for the event. On April 17 I'll be going out with the Surf Scoters for 4 hours on the tugboat, "Sea Dive," from Alviso, which is on the southern part of San Francisco Bay. See here for details.
We'll be cruising the edge of the bay, scoping bird life in marshes and mudflats, as well as whatever we see on the bay itself. We are likely to see various ducks, geese and grebes on the water; Willits, Dowitchers, Godwits, Sandpipers, Avocets, and Stilts on the mudflats; blackbirds and sparrows in the marshes; and gulls everywhere.
We will be birding from this tug, the Sea Dive
As online donors, I may not be able to match your real names with your Kos handles, so if you’d like a personal response or information by email, please use the Messages feature on my profile page to drop me a note. If you want to give me your email address, I will certainly keep that confidential.
Following the birdathon, I'll send out a trip report to the email you used for registration and, if you donate at least $20, you'll become a member of Santa Clara Valley Audubon.
Money raised will primarily be used for children’s wildlife education.
SCVAS’ educational programs reached more than 7,000 kids in Santa Clara County last year. Trained volunteers conduct hands-on, in-class activities and presentations to schoolchildren, teaching them about birds, wildlife, and the environment. Some of these presentations include live predatory birds visiting classrooms! Volunteers also lead school field trips, taking children into nature to identify birds and learn about ecosystems. In the last year SCVAS took hundreds of kids on field trips. Where needed, SCVAS provided free school buses to make these field trips possible for students from low-income communities. This could be a child’s first experience to enjoy nature or observe our birds!
There is one more reason I’m strongly supporting SCVAS this spring: They are leading the fight to protect vital bird habitat from a massive electrical power plant proposed for Panoche Valley. The plant would cover about 5,000 acres in San Benito County, which is south of San Jose and east of Monterey.
SCVAS leaders say that they have greatly mixed feelings about opposing this plant, however, because it’s slated to be one of the largest solar power generating facilities in California.
Audubon is certainly in favor of solar generation, as we all should be, but the organization strongly feels that this project is simply in the wrong place. The fear is that this massive electrical plant would cover up vital habitat, and that the human element would scare and scatter birdlife of the valley.
See, Panoche Valley has been designated a worldwide Important Bird Area because its clean, remote habitat is home to high concentrations of wintering raptors such as Ferruginous Hawks, Golden Eagles, and Prairie Falcons, and enormous flocks of sparrows. Burrowing Owls, which are threatened in Santa Clara County, where I live, have outstanding habitat in Panoche, as do Grasshopper Sparrows and Short-eared Owls, both of which have been virtually eliminated as nesting birds elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley. Winter brings Mountain Plover to the short-grass prairie on the valley floor, as well as Mountain Bluebirds.
If the power plant is built, this valley floor will be almost entirely covered in solar panels
For more information on the importance of protecting Panoche Valley, see this great diary that lineatus did in January.
No, your donations do not go, directly, to the fight for Panoche, but donations given to SCVAS for its educational efforts will free up money that can go to other uses.
As I said up top, I do understand that we all have a lot of financial pressures on us. I’m no different, and don’t have a lot of money myself, but I can’t ask you all to donate to me if I’m not ready to donate to others myself.
I have made my donations to NFTT, Hill Country Ride for AIDS, and Doctors without Borders, among others.
If you support those fundraising efforts, please also kick in a few extra bucks and support mine. You've got another $10, you've got another $25, you've got another $50. Don't wait for the next person to donate; do it yourself!
Every bit helps; I know you can do it!
Donate now! Do it for the birds!
Thanks a lot,
Senor Unoball