Sagehen's summer course is just one of ten being offered across nine California counties this year as the new program emerges from a yearlong pilot to scale up across the state. "They get 10 weeks of training, they get certified, and they want to do more." She took the 10-week California Naturalist course herself the previous summer, earning one of the new statewide program's first certifications, which are issued by the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), a land-grant educational outreach organization known for its agricultural research and extension programs, and for running the 4-H Club and Master Gardener programs. The self-declared "bird nerd" has been volunteering at Sagehen this past summer, helping Clevinger gather data that is part of a national study on bird survivorship. Next to him, Jen Cubias grips a pencil and clipboard through thick gloves and records information. He attaches a tag to its leg and releases it. The bird looks peaceful as it submits to Clevinger's steady grip, resigned to the intimate transaction between species. He measures the wing and beak and determines the sex by blowing the feathers up on the belly - a female's breast, reddish from increased blood flow, will "unzip" to help warm the eggs. Back at the picnic table that serves as a temporary classroom, Clevinger pulls a tiny dusk flycatcher out of a cloth sack and leads students through a series of procedures.
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