Watch the birdies? Oregon 2020 wants you

The May session of Salem Audubon's monthly Birders' Night on May 13 will be a recruiting session of sorts.

Guest speaker W. Douglas Robinson, the Mace Professor of Watchable Wildlife at Oregon State University is enlisting groups of birders in each Oregon county to collect data about birds in their area as part of Oregon 2020.

Birders' Night starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Cat Cavern, second floor, at Willamette University's Putnam Center.

Oregon 2020 is a benchmark survey of the distribution and abundance of the state's birds. Robinson will explain the important role that citizen scientists can play by contributing their observations of birds.

He is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and is director of Oregon 2020.

His goal is to compile detailed knowledge about birds and how they respond to habitat change, and to encourage citizens to understand the value of their daily observations of the world around them, especially when they collect and share those observations in a way that will benefit future generations. For more information about the project or to volunteer go to http://oregon2020.com/

Volunteers will receive specific training abiout how to collect data.

"We stand at a pivotal time in history," Robinson said. "Our climate is changing, and native habitats are being converted for human use. Many of us care deeply about these changes, but feel somewhat helpless fighting a never-ending battle.

"The news is not all bad. If we take a longer view, we have an opportunity now to greatly inform future generations regarding how biodiversity responds to environmental changes."

A co-sponsor of the monthly sessions is Willamette's Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society led by Dr. David Craig, head of the biology department.

Contact: Salem Audubon Society at (503) 588-7340.