Posted by Pamela Arnsberger on Jan 25, 2018
Announcements and Reminders
 
Please note:  The online application for community grants has been posted. It is downloadable from the bottom right corner of our home page.  

Please return your application via email by April 13th.’

 

John awarded Michelle Bassi a Polio Plus pin for her contributions.
If we have eligible contestants, the speech contest will be held February 15th. Sign up to help with judging, scoring or greeting.
Wednesday Feb 21st will be the Business Showcase in Aptos. The event is held here at Aptos Seascape from 4-7. Doug has a volunteer sign-up sheet to help promote Rotary that night.
RYLA applications are out now. Get them from Sandra if you know of students who are eligible (freshman, sophomores or juniors in high school).
June 23-27th is the international convention this year in Toronto.
         Our three speakers today were from the Santa Cruz County Bird Club. Stephanie Singer is a board member. Lisa, the president of the bird club was the second presenter. Third, was Alex Rinkert who conducts bird research and habitat restoration and has led more than 200 birding trips.
         
 
         The president began by talking about the importance of knowing about birds in the area, where they breed and how many of  each species there are. She is trying to engage our community in helping with developing a breeding bird atlas for Santa Cruz county.
         Ms. Singer told us a story about the great horned owls at natural bridges. No one had answers to the questions about them and she talked about needing a resource to fill in the knowledge gaps.
         Alex then spoke about the breeding bird atlas. It is a compendium of information in a specific area, and are the authoritative scientific text for breeding birds in a region. They are widely used to do EPA’s. He spoke about how the information is obtained. It is collected by trained birders. They are asked to record species, where they saw them, dates, numbers etc.
         At this point the data are turned in and experts map the data. He then gave some examples of how the recording is done, showing slides of birds in our area as well as a typical map. In 2017 there were 45 observers. They collected over 3200 observations.
         Stephanie spoke about how useful the atlas will be to all of us and Lisa closed by showing us several dramatic photos of white tailed kites.  For more information or to donate or volunteer go to santacruzbirdclub.org.