Colorado State Parks offers volunteer opportunities for bird watchers

Colorado State Parks has two exciting volunteer opportunities for bird watching enthusiasts. Its Raptor Monitoring Program utilizes the time and skills of volunteers to monitor the activity of birds of prey on the land and in the air of Colorado's 42 state parks. Raptor monitors visit their park about every two to four weeks throughout the year, and spend one to four hours monitoring raptors on each visit. Observations are then documented electronically and used to determine the overall health of the local ecosystems.

The park system's Breeding Bird Survey Program relies on highly skilled volunteers to document bird breeding in state parks. Volunteers work closely with state parks biologists to perform point count station surveys in parks to document the best bird habitat areas, give an overview of bird breeding activity in parks, and to measure overall natural system health across park lands.

If your love of birds and the great outdoors isn't enough motivation, don't forget that after 48 hours of Colorado State Parks volunteer service you receive a complimentary annual pass. For more information, or to sign up for either of these programs, contact Stewardship Biologist Jeff Thompson at Jeff.Thompson@state.co.us.