Diane Wong-Kone will be leading the November monthly Pinyon Jay community science walk. Meet at the GBBO office to carpool.

Register with Lahontan Audubon Society here: https://nevadaaudubon.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/nevadaaudubon/event.jsp?event=3656&

As part of GBBO’s Pinyon Jay Community Science program, we are hosting monthly Pinyon Jay walks. These are a great opportunity for folks to ask questions and find new locations to look for Pinyon Jays.

North Reno has juniper trees, and seemingly no Pinyon Pines, but Pinyon Jays have been noted on eBird. Are they caching? We will explore a new location to see if we can find the jays and learn about some local winter areas we can explore. Today, we will be exploring the trails at Sun Valley Regional Park. Check out the virtual tour of the park.  Bring sturdy shoes, water, binocs, and a jacket. We will enter our data on the Survey123 app on our phones.

In 2021, GBBO started the Pinyon Jay Community Science Initiative, and Lahontan Audubon jumped on board as an eager partner. Since then, we have been hosting regular training events, and volunteers have been going on regular walks. Pinyon Jay populations have declined by more than 50% in the past 50 years, and are currently being reviewed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Pinyon Jays are very difficult to study using traditional survey methods, this program allows volunteers to use a free app on their smartphone to collect critical data linking Pinyon Jay behavior with specific locations and habitat types. Data collected through the community science initiative will be used to help agencies determine what actions need to be taken.