What’s a Birdathon?  Well, here’s how it works: In a single 24 hour period starting the evening of April 17, Starr Ranch Sanctuary Manager Pete and his team will set out to see or hear as many different bird species as possible — not just at Starr Ranch, but also at beaches, marshes, mountains and other Orange County habitats.

Before they set out, Pete asks folks to pledge an amount for every species they see or hear. When the 24 hours are up, they tally what they saw/heard and post a species list and recap. The group is hoping to increase the number of pledges and any support is appreciated. This is an important fundraiser for the Sanctuary and a fun one to follow at that! Pete will be covering the team's adventures on Instagram.

For more information on the Birdathon, click here.

Joining Pete:

The husband/wife duo: Marian and Steve Alter

Wife Marian grew up in San Diego, walking through coastal sagebrush and riding a bicycle through the back country.  She took up birding after seeing a Heermann's Gull and looking it up in a book.  She has two BS degrees, one in Zoology and the other in Accounting.  (Insert jokes about counting birds here.)  She and Steve met while he was in graduate school in San Diego, and once he realized that she was not having some kind of strange attack when she stopped abruptly and stared up into trees she taught him birds.  She works at the OC Sanitation District, where she still stares into trees on the walk to the office and counts gulls and ducks for the Coastal Christmas Count.

Husband Steve,  "back when I was in Graduate School I wanted to impress my girlfriend, so I feigned interest in her birdwatching hobby.  Little did I know at the time, but that was the start of a life-long passion,  and yes, over thirty years later I’m still interested in birding too.  All of our vacations are linked to birding.  When we flew East for my father’s funeral we arrived a couple days early to go looking for a rare gull.  In 2012 we were back East for a family reunion and had to cancel our birding plans for the Jersey Shore, which happened to be the day that Hurricane Sandy made landfall.  We seem to regularly go to places that others flee; Duluth in February, Tucson in August, Portland in the rainy season, Detroit….’nuf said.

I’ve been doing Big Days in Orange County for about 20 years.  I enjoy the strategy of planning a route, and keeping tabs on where certain birds can be found when you want one.  This interest has grown, so that now I coordinate two Christmas Bird Counts every year, with close to 200 participants in each.  Again, I enjoy the strategy and logistics of the count, and finding out where people are finding different birds, all information to be tucked away for next year’s Big Day."

The President: Vic Leipzig

Vic is president of Sea & Sage Audubon in Orange County. He joined the Audubon California board in 2014. He is a former council member of Huntington Beach and columnist at the Huntington Beach Independent. He teaches birding and natural history classes through the Emeritus program of Saddleback College.  He is a long-time birder and environmental activist in Orange County.

Photo of Vic by Kevin Chang/Huntington Beach Independent