MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – The Big River program of the Mendocino Land Trust and the Mendocino Coast Chapter of the Audubon Society are offering a free two-day bird survey training workshop on April 16 and 17.

The workshop will be led by expert birder, wildlife photographer and endangered species consultant Ron LeValley.

LeValley, founder of the avian consulting firm, Mad River Biologists, will train participants in identifying birds by visual and audio cues, as well as bird surveying methodology.

The classroom portion of the workshop will be held at the Stanford Inn on Saturday, April 16, from noon to 4 p.m. Power point presentations and audio recordings will help attendees hone their bird identification skills.

On Sunday, April 17, participants will meet at 7 a.m. at Big River Beach to further practice field identification skills on a guided hike up the haul road with the training leader and other experienced birders from the Mendocino Coast Chapter of the Audubon Society. The training will conclude around 11 a.m.

After completing the training, participants will have the opportunity to put their new skills to work by signing up for the annual Big River Bird Survey, an ambitious project, begun in 2003, that is cosponsored by California State Parks, the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society and the Mendocino Land Trust.

The survey seeks to document bird species present at Big River parklands and track changes in their populations over time.

Volunteer bird surveyors have counted over 13,330 individual birds of 87 species at the original 28 point count stations during the spring surveys at Big River and additional stations and routes have been surveyed in collaboration with neighboring landowner, the Conservation Fund.

For more information about the surveys, a report entitled “Report on 2005 Big River Breeding Season and Fall Bird Surveys Conducted by the Big River Stewards” is available on the Mendocino Land Trust's Web site, www.mendocinolandtrust.org.

Data from the past seven years of spring and fall surveys will be available at the training.

To attend the workshop, please RSVP to Big River Stewards Volunteer Coordinator Matt Coleman at 707-962-0470 or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..