Redwood Region Audubon Society advocates for protection of birds and wildlife by supporting local conservation efforts to protect wildlife and their habitat.

September 12 - September 20

The Birdathon Returns!

This fun fundraiser for Redwood Region Audubon and the Northcoast Environmental Center was postponed from its normal Spring dates to this fall. It will be held Septembe 12 - 20, but as in the past, each team or individual has just one 24 hour stretch to amass their bird count. We invite you to form a team, or pledge on one that's ready to go. Read the details here.

 

Saturday, September 26   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.

 

A message from Jeremy: I'm really excited about this workday because it may rain some more this week and allow us to actually uproot some of these invasives. I'll make sure to bring plenty of weed wrenches on top of all the other tools. 

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. 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

 

  New protocols are in place

. We will be practicing social distancing, wearing masks (extras will be provided if needed) and asking people to bring their own work gloves. We will also limit the number of volunteers to 10.  If more than 10 people would like to work, we will add a 9:30 start time to keep the group sizes small. Please email Jeremy at jeremy.cashen@yahoo.com if you plan to be there so we can make it a safe and productive work day!

 

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.

 

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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.

 

The Winning Drawings and Paintings Are Here!

 

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.

You can read the best of the Student Nature Writing pieces here!

 

 

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.

Read about the effots that made this possible, and the cause of its demise in the wild.