This year Charlie and I decided that we needed to get out there and give back to the community. And when I say community, I mean the bird community. We both enjoy admiring the plethora of birds that live and feed along the shore. When we were searching for a good cause, The Audubon Society seemed like the logical answer. As 'luck' would have it, there was a project that needed volunteers. So we quickly signed up and were well on our way to helping out our feathered friends. The project that we so naïvely committed to is called 'Lights out for birds'. Our primary role: to look for dead or dying birds. I know, it sounds glamorous right? Right. Not only do we head out once a week looking for dead birds but we do it at 5:00 am! But, if I am honest, I have begun to enjoy the early mornings. Maybe not the part that requires me to bundle up and role out of bed far before I am ready. But, the part that puts in in the middle of San Francisco before the city has woken up. But I haven't found a single bird yet. Now, you might be asking... what is the point. Well the point is that every spring and fall, birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway through the San Francisco Bay Area. Several migratory bird species are threatened or endangered. Many of the birds fly long distances, between Alaska or Canada in North America and Patagonia in South America. One of the challenges to this migration is that the birds that migrate at night rely on visual cues for their flight patterns. Typically those cues come from the stars and the moon. If you have ever been a star gazer you know just how distracting artificial light can be. So, between the many many tricky windows to avoid, and navigating through the brightly lit San Francisco city at night, the birds have quite a challenge facing them. So I will continue to drag myself out of bed at the wee morning hours and look for potential flight crash victims. The data collected will be used to encourage the implementation of a Lights Out program whereby tall buildings turn off decorative lights during the spring and fall migration to reduce bird collisions and to conserve energy. Chicago has implemented a similar program You can learn more about protecting Bay Area resident and migratory birds at goldengateaudubon.org.