Diario del proyecto San Mateo County Bio-Blitz

Just now, just today (and I have photo-documentation with screen shots) this project reached 10,000 OBSERVERS! That's wonderful - and a real testament to citizen-science. Onwards!! Stay safe and healthy

Dear Peninsula Naturalists - I am sure most of you are aware of the excellent work done by International Bird Rescue in our area. This request came to me today from Ioana Seritan, concerning care for Common Merganser chicks.

*MESSAGE FROM International Bird Rescue*

Hi, I am a wildlife rehabilitator with International Bird Rescue, and we need your help. We rehabilitators provide an essential service and are still accepting injured and orphaned animals for rehabilitation, but we are having to make do without many of the resources that we usually need for baby season.

In the summer, the bulk of our patients are orphaned chicks. Merganser chicks in particular are a huge investment of resources. They eat expensive, live fish and require special enclosures & special training to raise. These birds will be incredibly difficult to raise during COVID-19. And guess what? Our friends at Monterey SPCA have 8 Common Merganser chicks in their care.

So how can you help as a birder? Instead of trying to raise these mergansers ourselves, one option is to try to foster out the merganser chicks to a Common Merganser family in the wild. Mergansers are usually very accepting of more chicks. They are much better at raising these babies than we humans are! So we need your help locating a Common Merganser family somewhere in the vicinity of Monterey, Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Bay Area, or the Central Valley. Have you seen a Common Merganser family with chicks? Please notify us at ioana.seritan@bird-rescue.org and isabel.luevano@bird-rescue.org.

*End of forwarded message*

Let’s do what we can for hands-on citizen science during this difficult time of COVID19 - this is a targeted, specific request that draws on our highly localized knowledge!

Check out the remarkable work done by @thomaseverest on Banana Slugs up and down the California Coast - https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/32164-a-note-on-banana-slugs#activity_comment_4612924 - keep this page handy!

Thanks Thomas!