With the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and in light of new restrictions issued by Santa Clara County, we have had to reimagine Birdathon teams this year. Instead of a few large teams, we are creating many small teams. Some of the large teams may live on in name this year, but they will be conducted by just a leader or will move to a distributed model where individual team members bird on their own and then combine their results with others on the team. Please bear with us as we update the team descriptions to reflect these changes.

Whether you are on a team or just watching from home, there are many ways you can join the fun. We’ve created Birdathon Stories, a special place to highlight your Birdathon adventures as you send them to us. You can also share your stories through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (#scvas and #scvasbirdathon) and the south-bay-birds mailing list.

Please consider sponsoring one or more of the teams below. Your donations support all of SCVAS’s great programs, especially education and conservation.

We are making it easier than ever to form your own single-person or household team this year. And you don’t have to stick to the traditional “Big Day” format. You could do a feederwatch Birdathon from inside your home, and get friends to sponsor you based on how many species you see (for example, check out Eve Meier’s Backyard Birder self-guided team below)! Or walk your neighborhood and do a “5-mile Radius” Birdathon. Send us your ideas, and if you bring in $100 or more, you can get the new 2020 SCVAS t-shirt!

To create a team of your own, please read the event Rules and Guidelines then simply click “Form a Birdathon Team,” fill in the required fields and we’ll get back to you with more information.

You can sponsor a team or any individual on a team by clicking on one of the “Sponsor” buttons below. You can join a distributed team (every member birds on their own) by clicking one of the “Join the” buttons below. The list is in alphabetical order; see the bottom of the page for a list of teams in date order.

Some teams have special designations:

• A Green Team actively works to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Walking to a local park and leaving your car behind is one example. Backyard birding is another.

• A Low Carbon team is one that lowers its CO2 output by minimizing driving—only driving to the birding location, then walking or riding bikes

Almaden Eagles: This Birdathon favorite is splitting up into a distributed team this year, with Ann Verdi, Kirsten Holmquist, and Janna Pauser each birding a section of the traditional Eagles route in Almaden and the surrounding area.

A Birder on Hand: This social-distancing team will be starting in Willow Glen and going within 5 miles of my home including Almaden Lake Park and Guadalupe Oaks Park.
Team Leader: Roberta Baker
Time and Date: SATURDAY, April 4; 8AM-12PM

The Backyard Birder: Birding at home in between chores is my favorite way to decompress and how I got started with this wonderful hobby. I will spend a relaxing day watching the birds at my backyard feeders on and off while also getting ready to host family dinner.  
Team Leader: Eve Meier
Date and Time: Saturday, March 28; 24 hours

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Birdcassos: Join our first-ever “sketch-a-thon”. Inspired by the teachings of legendary artist John Muir Laws, and the timid voice we hear whispering, “draw, paint… you can do it.” We will spend our 4-hour time frame drawing the birds around us. As a “distributed team” we will not meet in one location as previously planned, but draw our avian subjects wherever we happen to be—your back yard, your neighborhood, a nearby park, or wherever… So sharpen your pencils and dampen your paintbrushes and get to work. Don’t worry about your technique or whatever the world believes to be talent, just look for birds you want to record and set your pencils and brushes to paper. The goal will be to draw or paint as many birds as possible in the 4-hour window… no experience is necessary and any style portrait will be celebrated. The only caveat is that our portraits must be of subjects we see during the 4-hour window, rendered within that time, and be properly identified. Send Matthew a snapshot of each portrait you create and afterward, all the portraits will be collected and assembled in a pdf booklet for your enjoyment. 

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 1; 9:00AM-1:00P

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Board not Bored: This year we are a distributed team consisting of SCVAS’s Board of Directors and anyone else who’d like to bird on the same day. Unfortunately we cannot bird together this year, but we can combine our checklists and our stories and share in the joy of birding. We expect a mix of beginning to expert birders brought together by our commitment to SCVAS and its mission. Grab your binos and go out birding as we seek out birds both common and cryptic.

Team Leader: Bob Hirt
Birding Level: Variable
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 26; Time TBA

Corvid-2020: This solo-birder team is practicing safe social distancing while chasing every corvid that calls our county home. Dan Bloch is searching out the five corvids of Santa Clara County, the Common Raven, American Crow, Yellow-billed Magpie, Stellar’s Jay, and California Scrub-jay, in this 24-hour solo team.
Team Leader: Dan Bloch
Date and Time: THURSDAY, April 2; ALL DAY

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Cupertino Creek Cruisers:  This is our 16th year cruising along Stevens Creek from McClellan Ranch to Stocklmeir Farm and back. All levels of birding skill are welcome. The route is flat. We walk the entire way, which is only 1 mile as the crow flies, but we wander around on both sides of the creek. At the end we will enjoy a bag lunch at the Blackberry Farm golf course picnic tables. We will see some of our local migrants and breeding birds, over 40 species and sometimes a welcome rarity. Meet at the McClellan Ranch parking lot in front of the ranch house. Coffee, tea and muffins await you! 

Team Leader: Deborah Jamison
Birding Level: Variable
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 26; 7:00AM-11:00AM

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR
DeDUCKtions:  What’s better than birding on Tax Day, especially when all your contributions are deDUCKtable? Matthew’s county-wide, 24-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 120 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 15; All day

Fartlek Falcons:  [Team Status and description under review] This fast-paced, foot-based birding trip will tour the trails of Arastradero Preserve and Foothills Park, requiring brisk walking and some very easy jogging interspersed with idle moments to actually look at birds (the classic fast-slow "fartlek" technique of training used by runners), covering approximately 8 miles. We hope for 50 or more species on this route.

Team Leader: Steve Patt
Birding Level: Beginning
Fitness Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: SATURDAY, May 2; 7:00AM-11:00AM
(Depending on the decision of participants, may instead be Thursday, April 23, or again, depending on demand, both dates)

Green Herons:  [Team Status and description under review] Trying to emulate the success of the Lean Green Birding Machine led by Rob Furrow, but without Rob's eagle eyes or encyclopedic knowledge, we will ride bikes from the Palo Alto Baylands (parking lot closest to the Environmental Education Center), past Shoreline Lake and along the Bay Trail, as far as the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant, then return via a slightly different route (about 20 miles total), ending with lunch at Shoreline, with 80 or more species seen or heard along the way. People who can actually identify gulls strongly encouraged to join the gull-challenged leader! Feel free to go "full green" by riding your bike to the start.

Team Leader: Steve Patt
Birding Level: Beginning
Fitness Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 12; 7:30AM-11:30AM

DISTRIBUTED: 24-HOUR
Hot Spotters:  Matthew’s county-wide, 24-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 100 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations. 

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 8; ALL DAY

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Laughing Gulls:  Distributed Group. Join us with a distributed birding outing looking for waterfowl, shorebirds and wetland songbirds in the Shoreline Lake area in Mountain View. Bird Shoreline Lake and Charleston Slough sometime during the Birdathon event window and submit your species list to have it counted into the Laughing Gulls species total. To help Santa Clara Valley Audubon this year, Chuq makes the following pledges: The first four individuals who join Laughing Gulls for this new adventure will have their $50 membership matched, and Chuq will donate $1 per species found by the group during Birdathon -- and $5 for every species listed as "rare" for the location by eBird. Join us, get outside and enjoy the fresh air and unwind watching the birds you love, and help SCVAS by being a part of the Birdathon this year.

Team Leader: Chuq von Rospach
Birding level: Any and All!
Date and Time: Any time during the Birdathon Event window

STATIONARY: 4-HOUR
Lax Returns: Well, if you haven’t had a had a chance to join a Birdathon team yet, you might also be one of those people who show up fashionably late to parties... or file your tax returns late. Either way, this is the most casual team you’ll find! Join Matthew Dodder on a relaxed, and very last-minute weekday “stationary-distributed” team effort. Where you relax and count birds is entirely up to you. You could count the birds in your backyard, at your feeder, on your favorite park bench… it’s up to you. Our final count of species will be a total surprise based on where participants choose to kick back and watch. It’s like a big sit, but the chalk circle is wherever you decide! 

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 29; 8:00AM-12:00PM

Local Global Big Day Birders: Join this distributed team simply by going out birding on your own on Cornell’s Global Big Day, Saturday May 9. Sure, the date’s outside the Birdathon participation window, but who cares? You’re contributing to Citizen Science and will be part of the biggest Big Day on the planet (they’ve been smashing Big Day records every year). You don’t even have to be local to participate—it’s a Global Big Day after all. To be part of this team, all you have to do is go birding on May 9, then submit one or more complete eBird checklists to ebird.org and send an email writeup to our Birdathon Coordinator at scvasbirdathon@gmail.com. That’s it! We’ll tally all the species seen and a list of participants and combine your stories and photos into one great writeup to share with everyone.

Team Leader: None, it’s truly distributed
Birding Level: All levels (must be able to submit a checklist to ebird.org)
Date and time: SATURDAY, May 9, all day and night

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
The Pen & Quills: Calling all word and bird lovers!  Join our first-ever group of scribbling birders.  As a distributed team, we’ll each observe birds wherever we’d like, then record our observations of each species through creative writing.  Poetry and prose, descriptions and reflections - be they silly, serious, or spiritual – are all welcome.  You may submit separate short-format pieces for each species you see (up to 200 words each), or a single poem, story or essay that includes all of your observed species (up to 2,000 words, which is about 3 pages of text).  No particular experience is needed - the purpose of this team is to observe and write about as many birds as we can, just for the fun of it.

Our format is flexible:  Pick a date and place to watch birds during a 4-hour window.  Afterwards, you'll have 24 hours in which to write about as many of the species that you observed as you can.  Send your final creations to Julie when you’ve finished, and she’ll compile them and send them to all team members as a PDF booklet.  You can also share your writing with your sponsors.  Following the sage advice of writer Anne Lamott, we’re going to “take it bird by bird” - and have a great time!

Team Leader: Julie Amato
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: Submittals due by Sunday, May 3 - see guidelines above

Piratical Flycatchers: Barry & Ginger Langdon-Lassagne will spend an intense day birding the foothills, baylands and open spaces of Santa Clara County in an attempt to see the most species in a single 24-hour period. This will be their 13th time participating: you can read about all of their previous outings at Barry’s Natural History Stories. Formerly known as “The Jack Sparrows.”
Team Leader: Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 22; All day and some of the night

Rock Wrens: (This team has moved to a distributed model, where team members will be birding individually rather than as a group). We start at Page Mill and I-280 listening for owls, carpool and return there at days end after touring a full Santa Clara Valley loop route. We hope for 140 species for the day and to retain our spot as the top fundraising teams for this event. The Rock Wrens are currently at capacity.
Team Leader: Bob Hirt
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 19; All day

Saint Anthony Ranchers:  This four hour private team has a great track record with birding-by-ear, and an even better one with the lunch they share afterwards! Led by Jim Liskovec, the Saint Anthony Ranchers typically range through Rancho San Antonio before ending their day at McClellan Ranch, but this year are venturing out into their local neighborhoods and parks as a distributed team.

Team Leader: Jim Liskovec
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 8

The Sharpies: Full day of intense birding with a fun and gregarious birding team, the Sharpies. We typically start early at Ed Levin and Marsh Rd, work our way across the bay to a west side hot-spot before heading down to Morgan Hill to finish off the day with south county birds, including owls. The team is running a distributed group across the county this year due to physical distancing restrictions.

Team Leader: Bill Pelletier
Birding level: Advanced
Date and Time: FRIDAY, April 24

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Shrikes of Joy:  Distributed Group. Join us with a distributed birding outing exploring Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve looking for some of the special birds found there like Yellow-Billed Magpie, Western Meadowlark and Loggerhead Shrike. Also raptors, and perhaps a Golden Eagle or two.  Bird the OSP sometime during the Birdathon event window and submit your species list to have it counted into the Shrikes of Joy species total. To help Santa Clara Valley Audubon this year, Chuq makes the following pledges: The first four individuals who join Shrikes of Joy for this new adventure will have their $50 membership matched, and Chuq will donate $1 per species found by the group during Birdathon -- and $5 for every species listed as "rare" for the location by eBird. Join us, get outside and enjoy the fresh air and unwind watching the birds you love, and help SCVAS by being a part of the Birdathon this year.

Team Leader: Chuq von Rospach
Birding level: Any and all!
Date and Time: Any time during the Birdathon event window.

Shutterly Fabulous:  [Team Status and description under review] Join board member Mike Armer in this 4-hour Photography team exploring Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto. Plan on hiking to Arastradero Lake, but likely no further as we take in spring in the hills. Photographers of all levels are welcome! LIMIT 15 PARTICIPANTS.

Team Leader: Mike Armer
Birding Level: Various
Date and Time: SATURDAY, April 18; Time TBA

Spiderhunters: Vivek Tiwari and his son Vayun have turned their shelter in place weekend into a family birding photography adventure! *Note: No arachnids were harmed in creation of this Birdathon team
Team Leader: Vivek Tiwari
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 12; 4 hour photography

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Subspecies: Matthew’s county-wide, 4-hour effort is one of the newly formed “distributed teams”. All the birds you record on the event day will count toward the team’s total. Your exact birding destination(s) are up to you, but as part of the the team’s collective effort, we will want participants to be distributed among the east and west hills, the bay front, urban areas, and south county. Birding in key habitats and searching for target birds, we expect the group to retrieve at least 100 species. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: Intermediate
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, March 25; 8:00AM-12:00PM

Varied Twitchers:  [Team Status and description under review] This is a high intensity day with one of the Bay Area's premier birders, Mike Rogers. Start your day early with owling and continue until sunset. This team has a history of seeing a huge number of species (160+) so join this team today and become part of the legend!

Team Leader: Mike Rogers
Birding Level: Advanced
Date and Time: SATURDAY, April 25; all day

Wandering Tattler: The Wandering Tattler (Chuq Von Rospach) is a one day exploration of different birding habitats in the county with a goal to see how many species can be identified (and photographed if possible) during four hours of birding, with a goal of better understanding how to help non-local and newer birders find the best birds and locations along an efficient and fun route that hits the highlights in the county in a way that maximizes birding time and minimizes travel time.
Team Leader: Chuq von Rospach
Date and Time: SUNDAY, April 19; 8AM-

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
Wrong Terns: The Wrong Terns is made up of the SCVAS Education Committee, Wetlands Discovery Program Docents, and anyone interested in SCVAS’s education efforts. We will be birding in our neighborhoods this year (and hopefully avoiding getting lost for once) and practicing proper social distancing. Members will send in their lists from their feeders and neighborhoods in order to compile a shared list. We encourage participants to send in pictures and stories from their isolation birding, and hope to be able to meet again soon!

Team Leader: Carolyn Knight
Birding level: Intermediate
Date and Time: Friday, March 27.

DISTRIBUTED: 4-HOUR
The 5-milers: Join Matthew Dodder on a 4-hour distributed effort with the 5-mile radius surrounding McClellan Ranch Preserve in Cupertino. This local-is-best concept reduces our carbon footprint considerably and allows for more prolonged enjoyment of the birds we find. Participants will select our destinations from a good list that includes Rancho San Antonio, Heaven’s Gate, Stevens Creek Park, and Picchetti Ranch OSP. We will not attempt to find each other or meet up after the tour as originally planned. Participants are merely assigned to one or two locations within the 5-mile radius so we can get the best coverage. Coordinate with Matthew before the event day for suggested destinations to ensure best coverage of the circle.

Team Leader: Matthew Dodder
Birding Level: ALL
Date and Time: WEDNESDAY, April 22; 8:00AM-12:00PM

You can also view recently completed Birdathon outings.