This is a long newsletter. To view all at one time:
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The September, 2021 Issue of the |
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Our Mission: To conserve and protect natural ecosystems, birds, and other wildlife. |
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September 20, 2021 Membership Meeting
7:00 PM - Zoom
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Divas in the Treetops: Female bird Songs in North America and Beyond
by Lauryn Benedict
This presentation will explore the singing lives of female birds. It will describe the form, function, and evolution of these beautiful signals, and will encourage attendees to listen for female song in their own backyards.
One of the focus birds is the American Dipper.
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Lauryn Benedict has long been fascinated by the social lives of birds. She has spent the last 20+ years conducting research on the vocalizations of avian males and females. Lauryn holds a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. She is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado, where she teaches about ornithology, animal behavior, and animal diversity. |
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Meeting opens at 6:40 PM. Meeting starts at 7 PM |
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Rainier Audubon's
Flaming Geyser State Park Bird Fair
September 11, 2021
Postponed!
The bird fest will be rescheduled for the spring. Stay tuned...
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Audubon Council of Washington (ACOW)
Date: Friday – Sunday, September 24-26
Location: ZOOM Meeting
Highlights at the 2021 ACOW meeting:
- Discussion on conservation and policy
- Interim CEO of National Audubon, Dr. Elizabeth Gray, will call in as our keynote speaker
- A panel of speakers will discuss renewable energy in Eastern Washington followed by a Q&A
- National Audubon's chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer, Jamaal Nelson, will join us as a speaker
- We’ll have a workshop on chapter EDI strategies in breakout sessions
- State and National Audubon board members will support us in a workshop on chapter board development
Updated 8/18/2021
"We are pivoting to develop a concrete plan for our virtual gathering on the same dates of September 24th and 25th and still featuring our keynote speakers of Dr. Elizabeth Gray, the National Audubon interim CEO and Jamaal Nelson, the National Audubon chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer. We will also continue with the conservation sessions, the clean energy panel, and the session on equity, diversity and inclusion at Audubon. We will provide more updates and a new, free registration link later this month."
Teresa Anderson
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Gather your fellow chapter leaders and grassroots advocates and join us for our first virtual convention on October 1-2. Meet Audubon’s new leaders, Dr. Elizabeth Gray and Jamaal Nelson, and learn more about hemispheric conservation, climate, and equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Registration rates are now more affordable than ever with pay-what-you-can registration fees starting at $25. There is also an opportunity to provide additional funds to help remove financial barriers to participation for members of the birding community who would like to attend.
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Upcoming Programs
- Dale Meland
- October - Erik Peters - Lower Russell Road Levy Project (GRNRA)
- November - Jeff Antonelis-Lapp - Birds of Mt. Rainier.
- December - Dan Streiffert - Malheur NWR
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Self-Guided Field Trips
by Heather Gibson
Vaux's Swifts at Monroe and Selleck
Monroe Vaux Swift roost
Each September thousands of migrating Vaux’s Swifts pause to roost in the old brick chimney at Frank Wagner Elementary School in Monroe, a rest stop on their route from northwestern Canada to Central America and Venezuela. An unforgettable spectacle unfolds each evening when the Vaux’s are in town. About an hour before sunset they begin to gather, circling the chimney in growing numbers. All at once as the sun goes down, they whisk into the chimney – tails first! There can be as many as 20,000 Vaux’s on an evening during the first weeks of September, and the birds keep coming in smaller numbers even into early October.
Frank Wagner Elementary School
115 Dickinson Rd
Monroe, WA 98272
Selleck Vaux Swift roost
A self-guided trip birders can take right now is to the visit a place where migrating Vaux's Swifts roost at night in chimneys. One popular site to view the spectacle of them settling in for the night is in Selleck, about 30 miles east of Kent.
The brick chimney that the birds roost in is attached to a large two story wooden structure that years ago was a public schoolhouse and is now a private residence. This site historically hosts a large number of Vaux's Swifts as a migratory communal roost site. Vaux's Happening project has compiled data that shows it as one of the ten most significant known roost sites for this species in North America.
Selleck School
35699 SE 252nd St
Ravensdale, Washington
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Webinar 1
How to use eBird to organize your birding adventures
Thursday, September 23
7:00 PM-8:00 PM
eBird is a powerful tool where people from all over the world record bird sightings, photos, and even sound recordings. This real-time data about bird distribution and abundance is extremely valuable for researchers and scientists. It is also helpful for amateur naturalists, especially when trying to learn about and look for birds—whether in one’s backyard or half-way across the globe.
Wondering how to use eBird to plan a birding adventure?
Join Calen Randall on a Zoom webinar as he helps you navigate eBird, and gives you tips on helpful ways you can plan your ‘bird day’ adventure.
Join us by clicking on the link below
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Webinar # 2
How to submit sightings, photos, and audio recordings to eBird
Thursday, September 30 7:00 PM-8:00 PM
Do you want to keep better track of your bird sightings and share your sightings with others? eBird is a great database that tallies your bird lists and archives your photos and sounds—all in the same place. And for free. Your sightings also provide a valuable resource for science, education, and conservation.
Join Calen Randall on a Zoom webinar to learn how to navigate eBird and get your sightings, photos and audio recordings submitted.
Click on the following link
Everyone is welcome!
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Rainier Audubon Nature Journalers Monthly Zoom Gathering
Sunday, September 26th
9:30am-11:00am
Cindy Flanagan
CONNECT TO NATURE AND TO OTHERS
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Are you curious about nature and would like to find fun ways to record your observations?
Do you keep a journal, but wish you had a nature journaling community to share ideas and inspiration?
Or do you want to simply join a group and listen and learn more about how to nature journal?
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The Feather Thief - Beauty, Obsession and the Natural History Heist of the Century
by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Book review by Nancy Streiffert
My favorite part of our local libraries is the display shelves near the front with the latest best-sellers, “cozies” (those cat or dog solves the mystery or girl meets boy, problems arise, happy ending kind) or just about anything in between.
The Feather Thief is the second book I’ve picked up recently about a man who breaks legal and moral laws to possess what rightfully belongs to the whole world. His goal? To steal irreplaceable historical artifacts from a small British museum. In this case, preserved birds and bird skins were the target. The reason? He’d become obsessed with the esoteric art of fly-tying – not to actually fish with – just to HAVE as items of rare and exotic beauty and to sell to other obsessed tiers. It is a fascinating and convoluted story told by a fly fisherman who somewhat accidentally heard about the theft and could not get it out of his mind without attempting to solve the crime and try to recover the artifacts, some of which were more than 150 years old collected by such scientific luminaries as Alfred Russel Wallace. (The writer only uses flies made with legal, easily accessible feathers and fur.) While you may wonder what good is a 150-year-old dead bird or bird eggs, these artifacts are used by today’s researchers in many ways. Not long ago, bird eggs gathered long ago were used to document the thinning of egg shells due to DDT. Feathers from long ago document the rise of mercury in the oceans. We can’t know how the loss of such artifacts will affect future research into questions we don’t even know to ask yet!
The author’s perseverance in following the trail is incredible but I won’t spoil the end for you! Read it for yourself!
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Rainier Audubon is looking for a Volunteer Christmas Bird Count Field Organizer
The Christmas Bird Count is Rainier Audubon’s biggest survey. The date is set. It is Sunday, January 2. What we do not know, thanks to COVID-19, is whether the event will be a normal Christmas Bird Count (CBC) where participants go out in the field with leaders or if it will be the same as last year “Christmas Bird Count at Home” where participants bird from their backyards.
We are looking for a volunteer field organizer. The field organizer plays a key role in getting everyone organized to participate in the CBC. Training and support will be provided. Organization begins in mid-October and wraps up on Christmas Bird Count Day. Duties include:
- Contacting leaders to lead each of the eight areas of the count circle
- Writing and sending Christmas Bird Count information to be posted in the Heron Herald Newsletter, on the Rainier Audubon website, and with other birding organizations like the Washington Ornithological Society
- Providing the Rainier Audubon Public Relations Chair with a written description of the Christmas Bird Count for media release
- Receiving CBC participant registrations (via Rainier Audubon email)
- Inviting government legislators, mayors and other stakeholders to participate in the Christmas Bird Count
- Placing participants on area teams
- Communicating with participants to let them know their area leader and contact information
- Providing the area leader with participant names and contact information
- Providing support and answering questions that participants and leaders may have
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Common Winter Birds of Washington
Thursdays, October 21-November 18, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Zoom
by Thomas Bancroft, Ph.D
Rainier Audubon is excited to offer an online birding course, Common Winter Birds of Washington taught by Dr. Thomas Bancroft.
This is the perfect course to get you ready to go out birding for the Rainier Audubon Christmas Bird Count on January 2, 2022.
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COMING SOON…
A New Website for Rainier Audubon!
Last fall a team of Washington State University students did a review of our Rainier Audubon Society website for a technical writing class. Website updates were recommended in security, design, content and more.
A committee of chapter members worked through the winter, spring and summer, with the help of a professional website builder, to make the Rainier Audubon website more streamlined, user-friendly, and compatible for mobile devices, tablets and computers. The new site offers online registration for events, an easier way to pay for memberships or make donations online, and additional features are planned.
A soft launch of the new website is planned for September 10th, after which adjustments to solve any issues will be made.
The updated Rainier Audubon website will be introduced on September 20th at 7:00PM, prior to our online monthly presentation, ‘Divas in the Treetops: Female Bird Songs in North America and Beyond’.
Members will have the opportunity to provide valued, welcome feedback on the new website.
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Amazon Smile
Shop at smile.amazon.com and they will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to your favorite charitable organization—no fees, no extra cost.
Be sure to specify your favorite charity as Rainier Audubon Society.
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Access Passcode: =u4WAXQ8 |
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"Nature does not compromise; a pelican is not a compromise between a crow and otter, it is just a pelican. Nature makes no compromises; any inefficient products are recalled to the manufacturer!"
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Cedar Waxwing eating Hawthorn berries. |
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