Birdathon 2016 – a smashing success

By Ilana DeBare

Birdathon 2016 was a smashing success — delighting 198 birders who took part in 22 special field trips, and raising over $62,000 for Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s conservation and education programs.

GGBA members and friends gathered for a warm, sunny Birdathon Awards Celebration on Sunday May 15 that included the presentation of our highest annual honors: the Elsie Roemer Conservation Award, to Cornelia Foster, and the Paul Covel Education Award, to Alan Kaplan.

More on Corny and Alan further down…

But first, kudos to the winners of our Birdathon prizes for fundraising and for birding!

Birding Awards

Most Birds in 24 Hours: First place to Dave Riensche and his “146 Birds in a Day in East Bay Parks” team. They set out to find 146 species within East Bay Regional Park District lands…. and hit that number exactly!

Second place in the 24 hour category went to Ivan Samuels for his Miwok-style birding day in San Francisco, which betted 87 species entirely on foot and without optics. (Click here to read Ivan’s firsthand account on our blog.)

Most Birds in Six Hours: First place to Bob Power and his Southern Alameda County team for 115 species.

Second place in the six hour category went to Glen Tepke and his Oakland team for 101 species.

Third place went to Dan Murphy and Murphy’s MOB for their Peninsula trip with 70 species.

Best Bird: Laughing Gull at Hayward Shoreline, the first documented sighting of that species in Alameda County, by Bob Lewis and his Hayward Shoreline team on May 8. Other birders have been trekking to Hayward for the past ten days to see the Laughing Gull!

Fundraising Awards

First Place Fundraiser: Dan Harris set a new historic record for Birdathon, breaking the $3,000 barrier for the first time and raising $3,060! Dan is a master of raising small gifts from many, many donors – 62 separate donations this year. How does he do it? You can read about his secret sauce (well, not so secret – it’s his love of birding and GGBA) in a blog post earlier this spring, Dan’s prize is a two-night stay in a guest cottage at Point Cabrillo Light Station in Mendocino, along with a pair of guest passes to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg.

Second Place Fundraiser: Holly and Martin Bern, who raised $2,200. They win a two-night stay at Sierra Hot Springs resort and retreat center in Sierrvaille .

Third Place Fundraiser: Jane Hart, who raised $2,150. She wins a one-night stay at the Joshua Inn Bed and Breakfast in Hollister, along with a gift certificate for dinner at The Grove, a farm-to-table restaurant in Hollister.

Fourth Place Fundraiser: Pat Kirkpatrick, who raised $2,000. Pat’s prize is a gift certificate for Sunday Brunch at the Cliff House in San Francisco.

First-time Birdathon Fundraiser: This new award for the most money raised by a first-time Birdathon participant went to Meredith Williams, who raised $830 and took part in the Audubon Canyon Ranch field trip. Her prize is a pair of Pentax waterproof binoculars, donated by Out of This World Optics in Mendocino. Yay Meredith! We hope you take part again next year now that you’re a seasoned Birdathon vet. 🙂

Please patronize our prize donors and tell them you heard about them from Golden Gate Bird Alliance! We want to support local businesses that support bird conservation.

Conservation and Education Awards

These annual awards are named for two outstanding volunteer leaders from GGBA’s history. Elsie Roemer was an Alameda resident who fought for decades to protect the shoreline there from development. Today a wonderful wetlands area within the East Bay Regional Park District is named in her honor – the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary along Crown Beach.

Paul Covel was the City of Oakland’s first naturalist, who spearheaded the construction of the Rotary Nature Center at Lake Merritt and introduced countless young people and adults to the birds and wildlife of Oakland.

The 2016 Elsie Roemer Conservation Award was presented to Cornelia “Corny” Foster, a GGBA volunteer who launched monthly habitat clean-up days at Crissy Field beach, an important roosting site for threatened Western Snowy Plovers and many other birds. Her work honors and enhances our National Park lands. (Incidentally, the  Snowy Plovers that benefit from Corny’s work also roost on Crown Beach in Alameda! Elsie Roemer would be   thrilled to see such care and protection of “her” birds.)

The 2016 Paul Covel Education Award was presented to Alan Kaplan, a GGBA field trip leader whose monthly (and sometimes twice-monthly!) walks in the East Bay Hills are filled not only with bird lore but with stunningly wide-ranging knowledge of natural and social history. There’s always a theme, and it’s always something you would never have learned about if not for Alan. Alan knew Paul Covel personally and has extended his legacy of nature education to new generations.

Birdathon Trips

This year’s Birdathon featured the return of some favorite field trips like Behind the Scenes at the Academy of Sciences and California Condors at the Pinnacles, and some new ones like Behind the Scenes at International Bird Rescue. 

Participants in the International Bird Rescue field trip received a special surprise – they got to take part in the release of several rehabilitated water birds at Fort Baker, including a Surf Scoter, Red-necked Grebe, and Brown Pelican. Amazingly, that same banded pelican was spotted a week later roosting in Alameda by GGBA members taking part in a citizen-science pelican count with Audubon California!

Participants in the Birds & Wine in Sonoma County trip also got a Birdathon bonus. After intense fog made visibility nearly impossible on normally-scenic Pine Flat Road, trip leader Bruce Mast offered to lead a second all-day trip – which took them not just back to Pine Flat but to a number of additional great Sonoma birding spots. Two days of birding instead of just one!

Birdathon Celebration

For the fourth year in a row, GGBA Board President Alan Harper and board candidate Carol Baird opened up their spectacular Oakland Hills home and garden for the Birdathon Celebration. The warm weather made for great shmoozing, fueled by chardonnay donated by the Robert Young Estate Winery, which had also hosted the Birds & Wine field trip for a cellar tasting.

Attendees crowded around for close-up views of a rehabilitated leucistic Red-tailed Hawk and Eurasian Eagle-owl brought by Native Bird Connections. (Thank you Dan Harris for building a black backdrop for the birds out of bed sheets from Target!)

They enjoyed meeting artist David Tomb, who displayed his bird prints, paintings and notecards – many inspired by endangered birds of the Philippines, which he helps conserve through his non-profit Jeepney Projects.

And they marvelled at the young geniuses from the Berkeley High School jazz band. This quartet sounded and acted like professional adult musicians, but were all ninth graders!

Click here to view an album with lots more photos from the Celebration.

Corporate Sponsors

Many thanks to the corporate sponsors whose generosity helped Birdathon 2016 succeed:

Silver Level ($2500 and up):
Dolphin Charters

Bronze Level ($1000 and up):
Farella Braun & Martel
Recology
SCS Global Services

Copper Level ($500 and up):
Emergency Management & Safety Solutions
Homebrew
Lozeau Drury LLP
Woodland Hills Telescope & Cameras

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Finally, thank you to everyone who took part in Birdathon 2016 – our Birdathon steering committee, field trip leaders, fundraisers, donors, and Celebration volunteers. We couldn’t do it without you.

We’re looking forward to an even better Centennial Birdathon next year: 2017 will mark 100 years since Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s founding!

We hope you’ll join us for the fun. Even better – help plan Birdathon 2017! The steering committee will start meeting in the fall to brainstorm ideas for trips and prizes. Your ideas and energy are welcome! Email Ilana if you’re interested at idebare@goldengatebirdalliance.org.