To all Richmond Audubon Society members, Thanks, Diane Jadlowski, Publicity Chair
"Virginia Birders,Please mark your calendars for the third and final Rusty Blackbird Winter Blitz, a citizen-science effort to document locations of this rapidly declining species across its wintering range. The Blitz will take place Jan 29-Feb 13, 2011. During this time volunteers will search for Rusty Blackbirds in likely habitats across Virginia and enter their observations into VA eBird. This final year of data collection will round out the effort of the first two years - we hope to expand coverage of the 2009 and 2010 Blitzes, locate additional sites occupied by Rusty Blackbirds, and collect data on the stability of these sites across years. In 2010 Virginia ranked third among states in the number of Rusty Blackbird sightings reported. Your efforts in the Blitz are critical to generating information for Virginia, which will represent our state's contribution to the range wide assessment of the bird's wintering status.
This project of the Smithsonian's International Rusty Blackbird Technical Working Group is being brought to you here in Virginia by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Virginia Society of Ornithology, the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatoryand the Virginia Important Bird Areas Program. You can find more information on the Blitz and on the status, distribution and ecology of the Rusty Blackbird in Virginia, as well as links to results of the 2010 Blitz, at http://www.vabci.org/rusty-blackbird.asp. Feel free to contact me, the Blitz coordinator for VA, with any questions."
Sergio Sergio Harding Nongame Bird Conservation Biologist Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries 4010 West Broad Street Richmond, VA 23230 sergio.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (804)367-0143 fax (804)367-2427 _www.vabci.org_ <http://www.vabci.org/>
