This calendar includes Heartwood’s scheduled chapter, volunteer, and training events.
For a list of unscheduled (work at your own pace) volunteer activities, check out the approved chapter activities: Heartwood Volunteer Projects
Want to suggest a new volunteer opportunity?
Want to suggest a new advanced training opportunity?
- This event has passed.
Audubon Climate Watch
January 15 - February 15
Want to use your birding skills to advance our understanding of climate change’s impact on birds? Then Climate Watch is for you.
This innovative community-science program enlists volunteer birders across North America to survey for one of our twelve target species in the same place (or places) twice each year. By sticking to a scientific protocol and sharing their results, these community scientists help track whether birds are moving in accordance with projections from Audubon’s climate models.
This is a scientific effort, so following the protocol precisely is important. To that end, Audubon has recruited a network of Climate Watch Coordinators to help participants get the technical details right, including the selection of a survey plot and sharing results with Audubon’s climate scientists.
Climate Watch participants do not need to be expert birders, but should know how identify target species by sight and sound or be interested in learning to do so.
Click here to find a Climate Watch Coordinator in your area. The coordinator will provide the information you need to get started.
If there is no coordinator nearby, you can still participate on your own by reading through the materials and planning your surveys with our online tools. Click here to learn more about the scientific protocol.
Time commitment
Volunteers generally can complete one survey square in two to four hours (12 five-minute point counts per square) on one morning. Surveys should be started in the morning and completed before noon, or if weather is an obstacle, started in the afternoon and completed before sunset. If you would like to survey more than one square, we would welcome your energy!
Target species
Climate Watch focuses on these target species: Eastern Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, Western Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Pygmy Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, Painted Bunting, Eastern Towhee, and Spotted Towhee. These birds are easy to identify, have an enthusiastic constituency, and Audubon’s climate models for these species offer strong predictions for range shifts for us to test. In future years, Climate Watch may include additional target species threatened by climate change.
