This year, Jay Watch turns 20 years old — it is Audubon’s 10th year coordinating this essential program! Why is Jay Watch so important? Just ask Todd Mecklenborg, biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service:

“The Jay Watch data is an outstanding resource that the Service has come to rely on over the years. Many of the managed public lands do not have sufficient staff to perform regular surveys for Florida Scrub-Jay due to constraints with employee availability or budget shortfalls and priorities. Having the annual data provides population trends for many of the local populations within our ‘focal landscape’ areas that provide metrics for our species recovery efforts.” — Todd Mecklenborg, Biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Article first appeared in the Jay Watch Report. Click here to read full report.