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Email Dave Shuford
PRBO Conservation Science

San Joaquin Valley 2012

In 2012, PRBO Conservation Science will continue to conduct comprehensive surveys of nesting colonies of herons, egrets, night-herons, and cormorants in the southern Central Valley (San Joaquin Valley & Tulare Basin) of California. This effort is part of a broader inventory of colonial waterbirds in 11 western states and is supported by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Rice Commission. Immediate goals are to:
  1. Document the size and location of all breeding colonies 
  2. Estimate the minimum regional population size of each species
  3. Contribute to an atlas of breeding waterbird colonies by 2013 
These surveys will also provide a baseline needed to develop a long-term monitoring program to track regional population sizes, trends, and patterns of distribution of colonial waterbirds. All of these goals are in service of the conservation of these iconic wetland birds.

Under Volunteer Materials you can find maps, protocols, datasheets and other information for the 2012 nest counts of heron, egret and cormorant colonies 
in the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin Regions of southern California.  

Species of Interest:  Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Double-crested Cormorant

Locations of Interest: San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin including the following counties:
Stanislaus, w. Tuolumne, Merced, w. Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Tulare. 

Known Colonial Waterbird Rookeries (you can also access this map in a new window under "Volunteer Materials")

Colonial Waterbirds