Date: 3/11/26 12:05 pm From: Chris Spurgeon via groups.io <chris...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] Pasadena Audubon now accepting grant applications
Pasadena Audubon is pleased to announce that we are now accepting Spring 2026 applications for our Research and Educational Grants program. We’re offering grants up to $5,000 to help fund both scientific research and community-based programs. We’re particularly interested in avian research that’s relevant to Southern California or the Pacific Flyway.
We’re also offering grants up to $1,000 to young birders and students (undergraduate and graduate) to help defray the rising costs of scientific conferences and related events.
The deadline for applications is fast approaching, April 3rd, 2026, and applicants will be notified of acceptance by April 20, 2026. Full details are online at www.pasadenaaudubon.org/grants ( http://www.pasadenaaudubon.org/grants ).
Questions? Contact <grants...>
Please feel free to widely redistribute this notice!
Date: 3/9/26 9:11 am From: Van Pierszalowski via groups.io <van...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] California Bird Atlas Update + March 19 Town Hall
Birders,
**
**
As many of you know, California’s first statewide Breeding Bird Atlas launched on January 1, 2026. In just over two months, the level of participation across the state has been remarkable. Breeding code use in January and February was up a staggering *+545%* over last year.
**
**
As of March 9:
*
42,885 checklists have been submitted to the Atlas
*
2,538 atlasers have joined the project and submitted at least one checklist
*
3,924 blocks have Atlas data
*
All 58 counties have Atlas data
**
**
By the end of January, 61 species had accepted Confirmed breeding codes. By the end of February, that number had risen to 102. The full February report is available in the latest edition of *the Atlas Dispatch ( https://ebird.org/atlascalifornia/news/atlas-dispatch-feb-1-feb-28-2026 )*.
Participating is very similar to how you already use eBird, but opting into the Atlas ensures your observations become part of the permanent statewide dataset being built to guide conservation and land management decisions for decades to come.
We have been deeply encouraged by the number of individual donors stepping up to support the project. If you are able, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution *here ( https://donorbox.org/california-bird-atlas )*. Your support helps fund the infrastructure and coordination needed to sustain this statewide effort.
**
**
Thank you all for joining the project. It has been inspiring to see the California birding community come together around this effort, and we are only just getting started.
**
**
Happy Atlasing,
Van Pierszalowski
Executive Director, California Bird Atlas
<van...>
The Winter Season (1 December 2025 through 28 February 2026) is ended, and
we solicit reports for inclusion in the Southern California Region of NORTH
AMERICAN BIRDS. Reports should be arranged with species in the taxonomic
order followed by the American Ornithologists Union (Check-List of North
American Birds 1998 and all Supplements) and the American Birding
Association (7th edition of the ABA Checklist, 2009 revised through the 28th
Report). Reports of species included on the California Bird Records
Committee (CBRC) review list
must be accompanied by documentation (written description, photographs,
etc.).
Similar documentation should also accompany reports of species unusual for
the location or season. Full names, with all initials, should be used in the
reports - John P. Doe in lieu of John Doe.
Reports should be sent to the appropriate County Coordinators (listed below)
or directly to Guy McCaskie, on or before 16 March 2026. NORTH AMERICAN
BIRDS cannot exist without your input.
Date: 3/1/26 8:34 pm From: <tgmiko...> via groups.io <tgmiko...> Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] [OrangeCountyBirding] Jim Pike, an Orange County original, passed away February 2026
I am very saddened to read this. Jim and I had a mutual friend: the late
great Dharm Pellegrini--who also worked on cowbird control at Prado.
Jim quietly corresponded with a lot of birders about their
sightings--giving input and kudos.
Tom Miko
Claremont 91711
909.241.3300
On Sun, Mar 1, 2026, 7:33 PM Ryan Winkleman via groups.io <rswinkleman=
<gmail.com...> wrote:
> Of interest far beyond Orange County...
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Thomas Wurster via groups.io <wurster...>
> Date: Sun, Mar 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
> Subject: [OrangeCountyBirding] Jim Pike, an Orange County original, passed
> away February 2026
> To: OCBirding <OrangeCountyBirding...>
>
>
> Orange County birders and beyond,
>
>
>
> It is with great sadness and heartbreak that I share that Jim Pike passed
> away on February 17, following his diagnosis less than a month before with
> an aggressive cancer. Though Jim was a respected member of the Orange
> County birding community for over 40 years, many will know him only through
> his posts to the OC Birding list serve, where he reported a steady stream
> of rarities, and regularly urged community action to save our park and
> neighborhood trees and plant cover from excessive pruning and removal. Jim,
> with his life partner Kim, moved to Huntington Beach from Wisconsin in
> 1983. Soon after Jim began his OC birding career. His impact was immediate
> with locals asking, “Who is the “new kid on a bike” who keeps reporting
> rare birds?” Shortly thereafter Jim was fully integrated with the area’s
> avid birders.
>
>
>
> Jim was very keen in the field and has a string of “County Firsts” to his
> credit. An incomplete list includes Mississippi Kite and Black-billed
> Cuckoo in 1989, Sedge Wren in 1991, Streak-backed Oriole in 1996, plus a
> Tropical Parula in 2018, the latter being the first state record for
> California. Jim found all these birds in Huntington Beach by concentrating
> his efforts within a limited geographic area and exploring it in depth. In
> the 1990s and early 2000s Jim joined with a small contingent of California
> birders who were exploring the Baja California Peninsula. He and I traveled
> there together in October 1986 where we stumbled upon an Olive-backed Pipit
> - a First Record for Mexico - in Catavina, a small palm oasis and rancho
> in the mid-peninsula portion of Baja. We spotted it independently, but only
> Jim knew instantly what it was. In time, Jim’s skill in bird finding and
> identification were acknowledged statewide, leading to his election to
> multiple terms as a member of the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC).
>
>
>
> The late, great Loren Hays was instrumental in recognizing Jim’s skills
> and talent as a naturalist and encouraged Jim to turn his avocation into a
> career. Starting as a seasonal biologist, and later as an independent
> consultant, Jim worked for 36 seasons with various agencies including the
> Orange County Water District, studying the Prado Basin population of
> endangered Least Bell’s Vireos. While the number of vireos nesting there
> varied from year to year, their increase likely made the Prado population a
> major source of fledglings that colonized rehabilitated riparian habitat
> throughout Southern California in subsequent years. Jim’s success there,
> both in monitoring and implementing recovery strategies certainly stands
> as one of his most significant achievements.
>
>
>
> Jim’s work with the vireos was seasonal, and he and Kim took full
> advantage of the offseason. They traveled widely throughout the western
> states, often camping in offroad areas that gave them access to remote
> desert and mountain areas. At home Jim and Kim nurtured multiple
> “fur-children”, a dog and multiple indoor cats, as well as some feathered
> ones.
>
>
>
> As a friend and fellow birder, thank you, Jim Pike, for all you
> accomplished in conservation and for all you shared with the community
> birding. You are greatly missed.
>
>
>
> Tom Wurster
>
> Garden Grove
>
>
> --
> Ryan Winkleman
> Rancho Santa Margarita, (the crown jewel of) Orange County
>
>
>
Date: 3/1/26 7:33 pm From: Ryan Winkleman via groups.io <rswinkleman...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] [OrangeCountyBirding] Jim Pike, an Orange County original, passed away February 2026
Of interest far beyond Orange County...
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Thomas Wurster via groups.io <wurster...>
Date: Sun, Mar 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
Subject: [OrangeCountyBirding] Jim Pike, an Orange County original, passed
away February 2026
To: OCBirding <OrangeCountyBirding...>
Orange County birders and beyond,
It is with great sadness and heartbreak that I share that Jim Pike passed
away on February 17, following his diagnosis less than a month before with
an aggressive cancer. Though Jim was a respected member of the Orange
County birding community for over 40 years, many will know him only through
his posts to the OC Birding list serve, where he reported a steady stream
of rarities, and regularly urged community action to save our park and
neighborhood trees and plant cover from excessive pruning and removal. Jim,
with his life partner Kim, moved to Huntington Beach from Wisconsin in
1983. Soon after Jim began his OC birding career. His impact was immediate
with locals asking, “Who is the “new kid on a bike” who keeps reporting
rare birds?” Shortly thereafter Jim was fully integrated with the area’s
avid birders.
Jim was very keen in the field and has a string of “County Firsts” to his
credit. An incomplete list includes Mississippi Kite and Black-billed
Cuckoo in 1989, Sedge Wren in 1991, Streak-backed Oriole in 1996, plus a
Tropical Parula in 2018, the latter being the first state record for
California. Jim found all these birds in Huntington Beach by concentrating
his efforts within a limited geographic area and exploring it in depth. In
the 1990s and early 2000s Jim joined with a small contingent of California
birders who were exploring the Baja California Peninsula. He and I traveled
there together in October 1986 where we stumbled upon an Olive-backed Pipit
- a First Record for Mexico - in Catavina, a small palm oasis and rancho
in the mid-peninsula portion of Baja. We spotted it independently, but only
Jim knew instantly what it was. In time, Jim’s skill in bird finding and
identification were acknowledged statewide, leading to his election to
multiple terms as a member of the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC).
The late, great Loren Hays was instrumental in recognizing Jim’s skills and
talent as a naturalist and encouraged Jim to turn his avocation into a
career. Starting as a seasonal biologist, and later as an independent
consultant, Jim worked for 36 seasons with various agencies including the
Orange County Water District, studying the Prado Basin population of
endangered Least Bell’s Vireos. While the number of vireos nesting there
varied from year to year, their increase likely made the Prado population a
major source of fledglings that colonized rehabilitated riparian habitat
throughout Southern California in subsequent years. Jim’s success there,
both in monitoring and implementing recovery strategies certainly stands
as one of his most significant achievements.
Jim’s work with the vireos was seasonal, and he and Kim took full advantage
of the offseason. They traveled widely throughout the western states, often
camping in offroad areas that gave them access to remote desert and
mountain areas. At home Jim and Kim nurtured multiple “fur-children”, a dog
and multiple indoor cats, as well as some feathered ones.
As a friend and fellow birder, thank you, Jim Pike, for all you
accomplished in conservation and for all you shared with the community
birding. You are greatly missed.
Date: 2/14/26 12:33 pm From: Edward Vine via groups.io <elvine...> Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Using eBird to plan a trip
Kurt Radamaker sent this out recently and this may help you:
# eBird Hotspot Species Comparison Tool
## How It Works
**eBird Hotspot Species Comparison** is an interactive mapping tool that
helps birders discover what species they might find at different locations
and identify target birds to look for.
### Getting Started
When you load the page, you'll see:
- A map displaying bird observation hotspots as **green points**
- County centers as **black points** (when enabled)
- A control panel on the top-left with filtering options
### Map Controls
**State Selector**
- Choose any US state, Mexico, or view all US states at once
- The map automatically updates to show hotspots in your selected region
**Hotspot Activity (days)**
- Filter hotspots by recent birding activity (3-30 days)
- Shows only locations that have been visited recently
**Min Hotspot Species Count**
- Filter hotspots by total species diversity
- Choose from 0 (all hotspots) up to 500+ species
- Helps you find the most productive birding locations
**Show Counties Checkbox**
- Toggle county center points on/off
- ⚠️ Note: Loading counties is slow due to the large number of API requests
### Comparing Locations
**The main feature: Click any two points to compare species lists**
1. **Click your first location** (either a green hotspot or black county)
- A red marker appears
2. **Click your second location**
- A blue marker appears
- A popup automatically displays showing:
- Species in Location 1 NOT in Location 2
- Species in Location 2 NOT in Location 1
3. **Understanding the Results**
- Each species name is clickable and links to eBird species pages
- Exotic/introduced species are automatically filtered out
- Results help you plan which location to visit for target birds
### Map Features
**Hover to Preview**
- Hover over any point to see its name and details
- No need to click unless you want to compare
**Home Button**
- Returns you to the main maps page (bottom-right)
**Reset Button**
- Clears all selection markers and reloads the map (bottom-right)
**Basemap Selector**
- Change the map style (streets, satellite, terrain, etc.)
- Bottom-right corner
### Use Cases
- **Trip Planning**: Compare two nearby hotspots to decide where to bird
- **Target Species**: Find which location has birds you need for your
county/state list
- **County vs Hotspot**: Compare an entire county's species list against a
specific hotspot
- **State Comparisons**: See what species are in one state but not another
### Technical Notes
- Data is live from eBird's API
- Hotspot data updates based on recent activity
- County loading uses parallel requests for faster performance (but still
takes time)
- All exotic/introduced species are excluded from comparisons for cleaner
results
**Happy Birding!** 🐦
---
*Copyright - Kurt Radamaker*
On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:07 PM chuck schussman via groups.io <cschussman=
<icloud.com...> wrote:
> Hi, I am planning a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. Can eBird be used to identify
> the best places in or around Omaha to find a particular species? I am
> hoping there is another way to do this other than just clicking on all the
> flags on the range map... I am imagining that what I want is some way to
> display a list of all of the sightings of a particular species in a
> particular county, sorted by location and then by date. Is something like
> that possible? How do you all use eBird to plan a birding trip?
>
> Thanks!
> Chuck Schussman
> Tustin, California
>
>
>
>
>
--
Edward Vine
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Building 90R2002
Berkeley, CA 94720-8136
Date: 2/13/26 3:56 pm From: Ken Burton via groups.io <shrikethree...> Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Using eBird to plan a trip
Tom (et al.),
While I fully agree that there are many valid reasons not to be on Facebook
and that the "Balkanization" you describe is lamentable, the official
description of CALBIRDS is "A forum for the discussion of rare birds found
within California." I think you will agree that Chuck's post does not meet
that criterion. I'm not a CALBIRDS moderator, but I am a subscriber, and I
think opening the group up to posts on how to use eBird is a very slippery
slope.
Ken
On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 3:40 PM T.G. Miko <tgmiko...> wrote:
> Ken,
> I wholeheartedly disagree:
> 1. Lots of people are not on Facebook for various reasons. Some of them
> ideological.
> 2. This is another symptom of the extreme balkanization of bird
> communications on the internet. This burger who lives in another state does
> not have the ability to reach out and join various groups on WhatsApp or
> Discord. The only way you can join those groups is first you have to find
> out what the heck the name of the group is, and then you have to find
> somebody who's willing to let you join the group, and that assumes that
> you're able to find somebody to reach out to and ask them to let you know.
> I can tell you stories of groups one County over that wouldn't let people
> in my County join their group. How do you think they're going to treat
> somebody from another state?
>
> Tom Miko
> Claremont 91711
> 909.241.3300
> "We lose a rifle and get punished. They lose a war and get promoted."--Ben
> Edwards
>
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:02 PM Ken Burton via groups.io <shrikethree=
> <gmail.com...> wrote:
>
>> I think this is a question for the eBird community discussion group on
>> Facebook, not CALBIRDS.
>>
>> Ken Burton
>> McKinleyville
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:07 PM chuck schussman via groups.io
>> <cschussman...> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, I am planning a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. Can eBird be used to
>>> identify the best places in or around Omaha to find a particular species? I
>>> am hoping there is another way to do this other than just clicking on all
>>> the flags on the range map... I am imagining that what I want is some way
>>> to display a list of all of the sightings of a particular species in a
>>> particular county, sorted by location and then by date. Is something like
>>> that possible? How do you all use eBird to plan a birding trip?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Chuck Schussman
>>> Tustin, California
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
Date: 2/13/26 3:02 pm From: Ken Burton via groups.io <shrikethree...> Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Using eBird to plan a trip
I think this is a question for the eBird community discussion group on
Facebook, not CALBIRDS.
Ken Burton
McKinleyville
On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:07 PM chuck schussman via groups.io <cschussman=
<icloud.com...> wrote:
> Hi, I am planning a trip to Omaha, Nebraska. Can eBird be used to identify
> the best places in or around Omaha to find a particular species? I am
> hoping there is another way to do this other than just clicking on all the
> flags on the range map... I am imagining that what I want is some way to
> display a list of all of the sightings of a particular species in a
> particular county, sorted by location and then by date. Is something like
> that possible? How do you all use eBird to plan a birding trip?
>
> Thanks!
> Chuck Schussman
> Tustin, California
>
>
>
>
>
