"If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the environmental problems of the world." Thomas Lovejoy

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~News and Upcoming Events~ February Photo Share 2/02/23 - Pick out 10 of your best bird photos from 2022 and submit them by January 28th to: birder1932@gmail.com to be included in the program! Citizen Science: Complete the FREE eBird Essentials Course before Jan 31st Citizen Science: Great Backyard Bird Count - Feb 17 - 20, 2023 Upcoming March 2nd Program: Beaver Restoration Upcoming April 6th Program: Bird Banding in Eastern Idaho with Austin Young Upcoming May 4th Program: Mountain Biking the Baja Divide! with adventurers Darren and Lisa Smith

Annual February Photo Sharing PARTY! Thursday, February 2, 2023 7:00 PM On the BIG Screen at the Lamphouse Theater 223 5th Ave S Please join Prairie Falcon’s Photo Sharing Party. Get together with your birding pals to share photos and the stories behind the photos. Wine, beer, popcorn and more available for purchase! What a great way to kick-start another season of great Prairie Falcon Audubon programs.  This program will not be available on ZOOM, but we will make it available at a later date on our YouTube Channel

Northern Pygmy-Owl Georgetown, Idaho Pat Weber, Photographer

FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS: Start reviewing all your photos/videos and select ones you would like to share with our group. Please choose high quality photos in a jpeg format. Photos will be placed into a PowerPoint presentation and displayed on a large screen. Maximum number of photos – 10, plus a photo of you birding! How to submit:  Photos should be in jpeg format, and should be consecutively numbered in the title to make sure they load in the order you intend. Please email in jpeg format (high resolution) to birder1932@gmail.com or try using https://wetransfer.com/. Correct identification (we can help) of bird and where the photo was taken needs to be noted. You do not need to be in attendance to share photos. And you do not need to share photos to attend :) Everyone is welcome! Submission Deadline:  January 28th. We will regale ourselves with photographs and videos taken by the best photographers around – our members!!!  It’s your chance to share with everyone special moments you’ve encountered while traveling or simply looking out your back window. We would love to see your photographs!! Past Photo-Share Videos: 2018 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td0sX8tAbN0 2019 - https://youtu.be/5dHYkQHcvaU 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDaD-zzKvpc 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYS2tz33b3Q 2022 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siOSA0LBH3c

CITIZEN SCIENCE Get Involved! It's as easy!

Red-breasted Nuthatch

American Goldfinch

Spotted Towhee

Take the FREE eBird Essentials Course ...and be entered into the January eBirder of the Month Challenge This January’s eBirder of the Month challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, can help eBirders of every experience level learn something new about eBird. The free, self-guided eBird Essentials course contains the fundamental information every eBirder should know— everything from best practices to time-saving tips and tricks. The eBirder of the Month will be drawn from eBirders who complete the eBird Essentials course and submit 1 or more eligible checklists in January. If you have already completed the course, just submit at least one checklist in January to qualify. This course is for everyone from beginning eBirders to long-time users. The step-by-step walk-throughs and video tutorials make using eBird a breeze. Check out these testimonials from course participants: “I have been hesitant to begin using eBird, unsure how or where to begin. Thanks to this course I feel more confident on how to begin using the program.” “Though I already use eBird regularly, this course explained details and features I wasn’t aware of. It also described the importance of details that I normally took for granted.” Start with eBird Essentials today! The winner will receive new ZEISS Conquest HD 8×42 binoculars and will be notified by the 10th of the following month. Each month eBird features a new eBird challenge and a new set of selection criteria.

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count Another video to encourage your participation Participating is easy, fun to do alone or with others, and can be done anywhere you find birds. Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds. Anywhere will do - home, park, WMA, a Magic Valley Birding Hotspot! Step 2: Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, February 17-20, 2023. Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings: Now that you have signed up for eBird and have completed the eBird Essentials Course, use the eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website (desktop/laptop). If you are a beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to tell us what birds you are seeing or hearing. If you already contribute to Merlin or eBird, continue what you are doing! All entries over the four days count towards GBBC.

Beaver-Mediated Riparian Habitat Restoration Lyn Snoddy, IDFG Thursday, March 2nd 7:00 PM Room 201, Shields Building College of Southern Idaho This will be an IN-PERSON program ZOOM link available for those who are out of town or are COVID/seasonal flu/RSV hesitant.  https://csi.zoom.us/j/2730389966 American beavers (Castor canadensis) alter riparian habitat and hydrological systems through their dam-building and wood-cutting activities. Managers have been using translocated beaver as a riparian habitat restoration tool in Idaho for several decades. The factors influencing survival of relocated individuals is not clearly understood and releases are often unsuccessful. We trapped and relocated 121 nuisance beavers during the summer and autumn of 2020 and 2021 in south-central and south-western Idaho. We attached VHF transmitters to 75 beavers and subsequently documented movements, mortality, and signs of habitat alteration. Please join me to learn more about this project, beaver ecology, and a few of the tools we can use to prevent beaver-related property damage. I grew up in south Louisiana hunting and fishing in the Atchafalaya Delta and attended LSU for undergrad. I did about 8 years of seasonal field work, which included work on many species of waterfowl, including Steller’s eiders and black brant, pygmy rabbits, moose, and ruffed grouse, before going to graduate school at Arkansas Tech to assess carrying capacity of moist-soil wetlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. I ended up working for the Forest Service for about 6 years as a NEPA and Litigation Coordinator on the Sawtooth National Forest and a Zone Wildlife Biologist for the Nez Perce-Clearwater NF, then landed my dream job with Fish and Game- Regional Wildlife Diversity Biologist. My background and personality put me squarely in the jack-of-all-trades category of wildlife management and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of my current position.

Bird Banding in Eastern Idaho Austin Young Thursday, April 6th 7:00 PM Room 201, Shields Building College of Southern Idaho

Then and...

Now

Austin is a homegrown Idahoan with lifelong passion for wildlife and fish, especially wild birds. He graduated in 2020 with a B.S. in Biology (emphasis Ecology and Conservation Biology) from Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID. and is currently working on his Master's Degree at ISU in Biology. He will share information about his field research with us.... For decades Intermountain West birders have recognized eastern Idaho as a landbird migrant hotspot. Record bird diversity and abundance in comparison to the rest of the state has been well documented. Three locations in particular have consistently ranked high with regard to migrant landbird use and fantastic birding. They are Camas NWR, Market Lake WMA, and Mud Lake WMA. However, multi-dimensional issues of aquifer shortages, habitat management choices, and declines in many migrant landbirds lead to questions about the effects on these locations and current role of these hotspots in the big picture of landbird migration. What does this mean for migrant landbird communities of the Intermountain West? How should the managers of these important migration stopover sites respond? What does this mean for eastern Idaho birding? Austin is currently trying to find answers to these questions through his Master's research. He hopes to replicate an Intermountain Bird Observatory point count and banding study at these sites from the mid-2000’s and use comparative analyses in order to detect any shifts in bird migration variables that have occurred in the recent past. With two seasons of point count data in the books and lots more data to be collected soon, Austin is beginning to understand how the birds at these sites have responded to the dynamic pressures experienced over the last 15 years.

Mountain Biking the Baja Divide Darren and Lisa Smith Thursday, May 4th 7:00 PM Room 201, Shields Bldg. College of Southern Idaho

On January 3, 2023 Darren and Lisa Smith, along with three friends, set out on bikes to ride the Baja Divide, a mountain bike route that follows much of the course of the Baja 1000 off-road motor sport race, crossing from the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Cortez and back. With great timing, their ride coincided with the storm systems that pounded California. Unanticipated events led to a shortened adventure, but they have many stories, pictures and experiences to share from the trail. Although not a birding expedition, surely Turkey and Black Vultures kept an eye on these five adventurers!

Darren and Lisa Smith have been residents and business owners in the Magic Valley for close to 30 years. They've raised three children, depending on adventure in the outdoors to help teach some of life’s most important lessons. Darren and Lisa continue to seek challenge and reward by venturing out on bikes, rafts, kayaks or skis.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement Prairie Falcon Audubon, Inc. fully supports National Audubon Society's statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (www.audubon.org/about/equity-diversity-and-inclusion-audubon). Prairie Falcon Audubon, Inc. believes that everyone has the right to enjoy birds, the outdoors, and a healthy and safe environment. In order to fulfill our mission to educate the general public about birds, bird watching, and preservation/improvement of the environment that birds and bird watchers share, we will work to include everyone, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, age, or disability. We are committed to building an equitable, diverse, anti-racist, accessible, fun, and inclusive organization that supports birds, and the people who watch them, in our community.

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