|
Redwood Region Audubon Society advocates for protection of birds and wildlife by supporting local conservation efforts to protect wildlife and their habitat.Weekly Bird Walks Return! Our Saturday morning Arcata Marsh walks, as well as our guided walks at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and along the Eureka waterfront, are back! There are a few changes. Attendance will be limited, and you must sign up ahead of time. Details here.
Field Trip: Bracut Levee, Humboldt Bay, Saturday, November 7, at 11am To View Potential Oyster Farming Expansion and the Impact it Could Have on Birds! RRAS will lead a walk along the Bracut levee to view the shorebirds and beautiful Bay vistas. We will discuss shorebirds and migratory birds, and the potential impacts of the pending oyster project expansion on them. There is a maximum of 7 participants, and COVID protocols are being observed, so please email trip leader, Scott Frazer at: genescottf@gmail.com (or call (661) 319-1243), asap for details and to register tor this walk. For details on the expansion project read the Draft Environmental Impact Report of, “Humboldt Bay Mariculture Pre-permitting Project and Yeung Oyster Farm.” You may also read comments on the project in a letter from our local chapter and California Audubon, as well as the comment letters from the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and US Fish and Wildlife Service.. Friday, October 9, at 7:00 p.m ZOOM Presentation: “From Field to Folio: Drawing Birds from Inspiration to Completion”
with local artist/illustrator, Gary Bloomfield. (This program was recorded. Click here to watch it, using the passcode dp79r#m%)
Have you been wondering how to either start or improve on
sketching birds? In this presentation, Gary will give a crash course on bird anatomy and explore how to apply this knowledge to
sketching birds in the field or from your own photo and video
references. Have a sketchbook handy! 
He will present examples of his field sketches and finished
paintings and demonstrate how to use your smartphone to “digiscope” photos to
get useful references. (Digiscoping is taking digital photos through the
eyepiece of a telescope).
Gary is a
wildlife artist and illustrator, working primarily in ink and/or transparent
watercolor and specializing in birds.
His published work appears in educational coloring books, various brochures,
pamphlets, posters, maps, interpretive signs and displays, and books. His
work can also be found on numerous T-shirts.
 Interested in birds for almost as long as he can remember, Gary
started actively birding when he was nine, and since then he has been
an
avid birder and occasional field ornithologist. He holds a bachelor's
degree in scientific illustration from Humboldt State University.
He has lived in Arcata,
CA since 1980.
Saturday, October 24 9:00 am - 11:00 am Wigi Wetlands Restoration Work Day Help
increase the abundance of birds at this beautiful site by reducing the
spread of invasives at Wigi Wetlands! We have made a lot of progress,
and would love your participations. As usual, we will
be meeting at 9am (or whenever you can arrive) behind Wal-mart and will
wrap up around 11am. We'll have snacks and hand sanitizer, but don't
forget to bring your own water. 
September 12 - September 20The Birdathon Returned! Report to follow soon!
This fun fundraiser for Redwood Region Audubon and the Northcoast Environmental Center was postponed from its normal Spring dates to this fall.
Friday, September 11, 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Heather Kenny presented a ZOOM program (pass code for recorded program: 0FA=WpxY) on her research evidence that Female bluebirds with high aggression
are better at coping with noise pollution.  She found that female
aggression levels influenced whether bluebirds settled in noisy or quiet
breeding sites, and partly determined the effect of traffic noise on
parental care of nestlings. More details here.
August 14, 2020 7:00 pm This program was recorded. You can watch it here. The password: R&&45%YA. Planning
Future Restoration for Long-Term Survival of Greater Sage-Grouse with Beth Fitzpatrick.
 Populations
of Greater Sage-Grouse, the largest grouse in North America,
have been declining across the West; its distribution reduced by about 50%
since European settlement. In the spring, sage-grouse males dance and display
at sites called leks in an attempt to attract females. If sage-grouse are to
survive, their lek sites, nesting sites, wintering sites, and the landscape connections
between them need to remain intact. More details here.
The Ecological Role of Raptors and the Impacts of Rat Poison, presented by Jaime Carlino. This ZOOM meeting was recorded. If you missed it, or want to watch it again, here's your link.
Rodenticide use is pervasive world-wide
and the costs to
rodent-consuming wildlife species such as raptors, as
well as pets and children, are high.  Raptors Are The
Solution (RATS) is a
non-profit organization working with a coalition of
NGOs, agencies, scientists,
municipalities, and individuals to eliminate toxic
rodenticides from the food
web. RATS and its regional chapters encourage people
to be proactive in
managing rodent issues without the use of poisons.More details here. . Jaime will give a brief
overview of rodenticides, their effects on a variety
of non-target species,
describe what RATS and HUM-RATS are doing to address
this issue, and provide
information on how to manage rodent issues without
using poisons.  In this year of the coronavirus pandemic, 160 home-from-school kids pulled out paints, pencils, pastels, or paste to enter the Student Bird Art Contest.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, entries for the Student Nature Writing Contest were down this year, but 23 students submitted works of prose and poetry.
 The ko' ko', a flightless bird native to Guam was exinct in the wild, and is now returned and thriving! Photo from the San Diego Zoo.
Second Thursday
Audubon Society holds its monthly
Conservation Meeting the second Thursday of each month noon. They are currently being conducted under the Zoom platform.
|
|
|
Saturday, October 24 Wigi Wetlands Restoration Work Days Continue! Details on this page. Special Field Trip! Bracut Levee, Saturday, Nov. 7. Details on this page. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has completed a Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Ocean Ranch Restoration Project.The public review period will end November 2, 2020. A copy of the Draft EIR is available here.
 Get the great new birding guide by Ken Burton and Leslie Scopes Anderson! It links well-known and obscure
birding sites, some of them only recently opened to the public, into 25 routes
spanning the entire county.
 The 3rd edition of RRAS’ Common Birds of Northwest California by
local birder Kenneth Burton and photographer Leslie Anderson is now
available!
Keep Up to Date Via RRAS Listserve
Be reminded about field trips and programs and learn about upcoming
meetings, public hearings, and symposia of interest to RRAS members and
other concerned nature lovers.
Create an account at https://groups.io/ if you don't already have one, then search for rras and join us!
Looking for inspiration while practicing social distancing? Try Audubon's Joy of Birds for ideas and wonderful photos!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|