Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
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Last month we hosted and completed our annual Summer Bird Camp here at GCBO. Over the course of a week, campers learned about different species of birds, dissected owl pellets, enacted the Whooping Crane migration route, studied specimens, got to see birds banded, insect collected and more! As always, our trip to the Gulf Coast Wildlife Rescue was a highlight and this time we got to watch a Barred Owl weighed and measured on intake which was pretty awesome.
A lot of work went into helping run camp and making sure there were always fun, exciting activities for the campers to participate in. A huge THANK YOU to our volunteers and our younger helpers for making sure things went smoothly (and for brainstorming new things to do in 2019!). Thank you as well to our bird banders, Robert and Kay Lookingbill, as well as Dana Simon for hosting us at the Wildlife Rescue.
Here are some pictures of our week!
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Thoughts for 2019:
Bird Camp's been a hit for multiple summers now and we love our return campers. We had some new activities debut for 2018 and volunteers and coordinators met at camp's end to discuss how we can continue to introduce new things in the future.
Some of the ideas we thought about included modifications to our bird banding activity, a day at Quintana looking at shorebirds and doing some field exercises, a potential birding boat tour down our bayou and more.
We're going to continue to improve on camp so it keeps being a fresh and rewarding experience for new and return campers alike!
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Our XHX flier was posted to Facebook last week! We will need some help running this awesome event so if you're available that weekend and want to donate a couple of hours of your time, that would be much appreciated! We will send signups to the Master Naturalists soon but if you're not a naturalist and would like to volunteer, please contact us at [email protected]
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Photography Workshop Reminder
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We put all relevant information on Kevin Karlson's Photography Keynote and Workshops on our
website
. We are very excited to be hosting him October 5th-7th and encourage you to book your spot now. This is a first come first served program.
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We have just two open spaces for our Duluth 2019 trip! Come along with us to bird the boreal highlights of Minnesota! Great Gray Owl...what else needs to be said?
Click here
to see itinerary and registration information.
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The Malcolm C. Damuth Foundation
, a long time GCBO supporter, kindly issued a Challenge Grant for six years for our General Operations Fund (GOF) endowment which helps us build funds to operate our day to day programs, projects, and business. It is a 6 year grant of $25,000 each year, totaling $150,000. Each $25,000 requires a 100% match. So basically we need to raise $25,000 to get $25,000.
The GOF Endowment is a critical tool to help the GCBO build operating funds, the hardest to raise for any non-profit organization. The corpus (your donated funds) of the fund is invested by an investment firm and earns income. GCBO can use that income for general operations and programs, including education and research projects. The larger the fund, the more income we gain.
This is the last year of this Challenge Grant, and we’d love to be able to build the GOF endowment with your help! Please donate today.
Please click on this
link
to learn more and donate today.
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Between the Oystercatcher diaries and other posts, we update our Facebook pretty regularly with field stories and news. But with the Oystercatcher field season winding down and some of you not following us on Facebook, here are a collection of some of my favorite photos from this summer's research work. Enjoy! And if you aren't already reading our Oystercatcher Diaries, you can find all entries on our
website.
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Bird Banding Saturday the 21st
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Join us Saturday the 21st of July from 8 to noon for our monthly bird banding session! As always, this is a great opportunity to see birds up close and in the hand. Most bird activity is early so best to be here early.
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New Donation and Membership Platform Up and Running
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We've revamped and completely updated our donation page on the GCBO website! This new platform should be much more streamlined and easier to use! Check them out here:
DONATE NOW
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Your in-kind contributions help us tremendously by freeing up much needed funds for our research and projects. Thank you!!
Field House Needs:
Now that the GCBO field house is up and running after being newly renovated from the Harvey damage, we are noticing a thing or two that we could use just to make it more liveable for those using it.
If you happen to have the following and don't need them anymore, please let us know:
Coffee Table
Nightstand
Black Oil Sunflower Seed
We feed year-round here at GCBO, and during migration at Quintana. We stock our GCBO feeders to help augment natural foods, and this also helps our monthly banding research project.
1 Gallon Plastic Pots
We can use your used 1 gallon nursery plant pots for the Growery. We go through a lot of 1 gallon pots when potting up new plants. Let’s recycle them here. We’ll take one or a hundred!
Sugar
Our hummers are thirsty! We keep hummer feeders up all year and those guys suck up that sugar water! We always need regular sugar. We mix 4 parts water and 1 part sugar, and no food coloring!!
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Now when you shop at Kroger, you can support GCBO!
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GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click
here
. Our charity number is #80345.
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All photographs are courtesy of GCBO staff unless otherwise noted.
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