Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
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Bird Banding is closed to the public in January
GCBO Headquarters and Plant Nursery is still NOT open to the public, but our trails are open during regular hours and our nursery is on our online store.
Brew on the Bayou has been postponed again to November 6, 2021.
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Happy New Year From Our Family to Yours!
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Volunteer at a Socially-Distanced Beach Cleanup!
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Due to the increase in coronavirus cases, we will not be able to hold a beach cleanup in January. However, we are encouraging volunteers to pick up trash on their own this month! You can do it by yourself or with a safe group.
We will require a bit of data collection at your cleanup (time, place, weather etc.), so please contact csilling@gcbo.org to get more information.
We hope to see you in February!
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This season is a favorite for many bird watchers because its time for Christmas Bird Counts, or CBC as they are often called. This year with Covid19 many have been cancelled and many that are running are not allowing any new participants, and all requiring strict Covid guidelines. It would take quite an article to list them all here with their particular info, so we will leave you with the web link to Houston Audubon’s CBC list for all Texas regions. Here you can find info about every Texas CBC along with contact info. If you get to participate we hope you have a great time with tons of birds to count!
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Join Us in Endorsing Texans for Clean Water
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Texans for Clean Water is advocating for a statewide rebate program to incentivize the recycling of plastic bags and bottles all while funding litter clean up and enforcement efforts. Please watch this short video and consider endorsing the plan here!
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Thanks to our RV Volunteers, Sheryl and Harold!
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Thanks so much to Sheryl and Harold Travis, who have been our resident RV volunteers for the past few months.
RV volunteers live on our property and help take care of our grounds. Sheryl and Harold have been putting out bird seed, helping with events, maintaining the grounds, and much more. We really appreciate their hard work!
If you are interested in volunteering with us (RV or otherwise) you can read about it here:
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Get our first Hummingbird calendar in the nature store now! It has 12 gorgeous Texas hummer pictures by Mike Williams, GCBO’s Board President. They are printed and bound by Mike with a plastic spiral spine in case you want to frame the pictures. Price will be $20.00 and will be a limited run by Mike, with all proceeds going to GCBO. If you want one or more, give us a call or go to our online Nature Store and buy them there! https://www.gcbo.org/product/2021-hummingbird-calendar/
Thank you Mike for making these with your beautiful photos!
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The Hummers Need Your Help!
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Texas is blessed with wintering hummingbirds, and here on the upper Texas coast we have a mix of some Ruby-throats, maybe a few Black-chinned, definitely some Rufous and Allen’s, a Buff-bellied or two here and there, and at times a few western species such as Anna’s and Broad-tailed, amongst others. We always leave our feeders up all year long here.
That takes a lot of sugar… a LOT! And we could use your help with a Christmas present for the hummers. We could use any amount of donated sugar you could help us with. We go through a lot of pounds of it! Regular plain white sugar, and you can bring it by GCBO during the week, or contact us and we can make arrangements. Thank you!
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Recycle Your Old Technology and Help Birds
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The Wireless Alliance is a company that recovers and recycles cell phones, smart phones, tablets, and other consumer recyclables.
We will be collecting these items for Wireless Alliance to keep them out of landfills as well as raise money for our conservation efforts. If you have old technology such as a phone, charger, tablet, or other accessories, consider bringing it to GCBO!
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Bird Banding Canceled for January
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Due to Covid 19, Bird Banding has been canceled this month. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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Brew on the Bayou Postponed
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Once again, we have had to postpone our Brew on the Bayou event in light of the COVID 19 situation. The safety of our volunteers, visitors, and staff is the most important thing to us, so we will continue to put that first! We hope to see everyone on November 6 for brews, birds, music, and friends!
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Have you updated your email preferences yet?
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We're working on fine tuning our email list so that you only get emails that matter to you. At the very bottom of each email there is an "update profile" or "unsubscribe" link you can click that will take you to a page where you can make your selections. We now have specific lists for things like volunteer news, special announcements, events, bird of the month, and more. Please take a moment to update your preferences if you haven't already. Thank you!
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You can help support GCBO's mission in several important ways!
Save a Tree and some $!
We are trying to go as paperless as we can to save some trees and quite a bit on printing and mailing costs. We would love if you would let us email you instead of snail mailing a hard copy of any correspondence, including your future copies of the Gulf Crossings. Please email or call Tricia to say: “Hey, GCBO, please start emailing me things! Here is my email…” Thanks!
DONATE NOW on our website to support our conservation programs.
BECOME A MEMBER and receive our twice a year newsletter and a 10% discount in our nature store.
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Make an in-kind donation to support our sanctuary needs.
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Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Chicken Scratch
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.
One 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!
Five Gallon Buckets
We could also use a handful of 5 gallon plastic buckets with handle in good shape.
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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 #DN782.
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Support GCBO When You Shop on Amazon!
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Do you shop on Amazon? Did you know you can do that same shopping on Amazon Smile and support GCBO with every purchase?
Just go to the Amazon Smile website and select GCBO as your charity of choice and then shop, shop, shop!
GCBO will receive a donation for every purchase you make. Thanks so much!
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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
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