Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
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Brew on the Bayou is less than 2 weeks away! After the set-back that was Harvey we are so excited to finally host our 20th Anniversary event on Saturday March 10th from 4 - 8 pm.
We are finalizing event details and organizing a host of volunteers to help run Brew - and the more we talk about it the more we realize what a fun evening it's going to be.
Our grounds will be decked out with tiki torches, the brew selection sounds fantastic, Drew Kennedy will be singing for us, you can purchase great food from two food trucks and the silent auction and the Birds of Prey show should all be hits!
If you haven't bought your tickets yet there's still time to call us and purchase them over the phone. Or you can show up at the event and buy them there- bring your ID as we do card for brew sampling.
(If you purchased tickets pre-Harvey we did refund those and you will need to purchase them again!)
For all of you who will be volunteering, a big THANK YOU. We couldn't do this without you!
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Spring Fling and Quintana Clean Up Day
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While we've been busy with Brew and other things, Spring Fling has quietly been creeping up on us!
Spring Fling takes place at Quintana Sanctuaries, from 9 am - 4 pm daily beginning April 7th and running until May 6th and is once again organized by Peggy and Pete Romfh. It's the place to go to see thousands of migratory songbirds as they arrive at stopover habitat along the coast.
In order to get Quintana ready for all the visitors, we are scheduling a Clean Up Day on Saturday March 18th from 2-5 pm. We will be trimming the trails and viewing areas, getting the water features operational, and more. Please bring gloves, loppers and water and thank you in advance for helping us out!
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Adopt an Oystercatcher Pair!
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Believe it or not, d
espite the cold winter and lingering rain,
the oystercatchers have already begun nesting! What overachievers!
How about adopting a pair this year to help support our oystercatcher research? Sue will update you monthly on your pair's progress through the nesting season and you will receive a pair of nice certificates with a photo of your birds and their banding information (see below). If your pair fledges chicks we will send you photos of them as well. We will be monitoring birds regularly in West Galveston and East Matagorda Bays so you can choose any of the banded birds in those bays. There's a selection of pairs on our
website
.
You can also follow along with our field season on our blog, The Oystercatcher Diaries, which can be found at the bottom of our home page.
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Birding trips are now on our website
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Last month we mentioned some amazing GCBO birding trips coming up this year. From raptor watching in Veracruz to hunting down Great Gray Owls in Duluth, these multi-day trips promise great birding opportunities in a variety of different habitats.
You can now see the full itineraries for 2 of the 3 trips on our
website
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A collared-forest falcon is just one of the birds you might see in our Oaxaca birding trip! Photo by Eric Antonio Martinez.
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Fun at Matagorda Bay Bird Festival and Sea Center
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We had a busy outreach month last month, first attending the Matagorda Bay Bird Festival and then rounding out February with Nature Day at the Sea Center.
The Bird Festival was a fun day celebrating the birds of Texas with special focus on the American Oystercatcher - the featured bird of the Fest. GCBO had previously done outreach with Matagorda students on the oystercatcher and it was gratifying to see the art the kids did for the annual art competition! They knocked it out of the park!
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We also manned a GCBO informational booth, spoke as guest speakers, and watched the Parade of the Birds where, again, the oystercatcher was well represented!
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Then, last weekend, with help from our RV volunteers Sue and Steve we spent Saturday at the Sea Center's Nature Day event, educating passersby (mainly kids) about birds! Thank you Sue and Steve!
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Our outreach program, Soar, visited two schools last month where we taught 3rd and 6th graders about local birds, their habitats and their adaptations. With awesome volunteer help we did an adaptation drawing exercise, gave kids a close-up look at our specimens (a big hit), and played a bird call game where they had to find their partners!
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Roy Morgan shows the difference between a hawk and an owl wing (top left), students try to find their partner using just bird calls (bottom left), and 6th graders create a new specially adapted desert species, the Spiked Cactus Wren (right).
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Goodbye to Sue and Steve and hello to Paul and Earline
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We were all sad to see our wonderful RV volunteers, Sue and Steve Whitmer, off last week. They worked so hard during their stay at GCBO on everything from site maintenance to helping in our gift shop to assisting with outreach events. You folks are wonderful and we appreciate everything you do so much!
Safe travels!
Taking over as RV hosts for us are Paul and Earline Kluss who arrived yesterday! They will be helping keep GCBO open on the weekends and assisting us with the upcoming Brew.
Welcome back to GCBO and we are glad to have you!
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Join us for banding Saturday, March 17th
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We have been banding up a storm the last couple of sessions- here's hoping we continue to catch a lot of great birds as we head into spring! Join us on the 17th from 8 am - noon (the earlier the better as the action dies down around 10:00 am) for your chance to see birds up close and in the hand and to learn about how and why we catch birds right at the GCBO headquarters.
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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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