This article was originally published on Intermountain West Joint Venture's website. It was authored by Max Malmquist, Saline Lakes Outreach Associate, 蜜柚APP, and Blake Barbaree, Senior Waterbird Ecologist, Point Blue Conservation Science. This past August, hundreds of volunteers, non-profit biologists, and state and federal agency staff grabbed their binoculars, spotting scopes, and bird identification guides to do something that hadn’t been done in almost three decades: count migrating shorebirds across the Intermountain West. This massive mobilization of surveyors set out to visit as many wetland sites as possible from August 9th to August 22nd in an attempt to help fill in important data gaps relating to shorebirds and their vulnerable habitats. The snowmelt-fed wetland habitats of the Intermountain West play a critical role in supporting over 30 species of migratory shorebirds that use the Pacific Flyway, such as Dunlin, Long-billed Dowitchers, and...