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The pandemic has been challenging for everyone and it has been particularly difficult for the Deaf community as wearing masks limits the Deaf ability to read lips which can be a vital communication tool. In an effort to reach out to this community, our Development Coordinator, Diane Wong-Kone, wrote a grant to support birding walks with American Sign Language interpreters. National Audubon selected our grant to receive funding and we will be planning these walks for the spring and summer and identifying ways that we can make all our trips more accessible to the Deaf community. Thanks to National Audubon for their support and congrats to Diane on receiving funds for this exciting project!
 LAS staff and volunteers were excited to join in several outreach events in the past few weeks. Education volunteers led by Alan Gubanich attended the Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience and shared our taxidermy mounts with hundreds of students. Students learned about local bird species and how to use binoculars to help them identify their avian friends. Thank you to all the volunteers who participated in the event and brought birding to our local students.
LAS staff also helped with the Rosewood Nature Study Area’s Martin Luther King Day of Service. This event invited participants to help clean up the wetlands while participating in a BioBlitz. LAS hosted a birding hotspot where we taught participants about some of the species that can be seen at Rosewood and recorded a full list of bird species that were seen that day. We counted 37 different species! Thanks to everyone who helped support our local wetlands. If you are interested in helping out with future events please fill out our volunteer interest form.  The Greater Sage-Grouse is an icon of the west, yet the species is on the decline. The majority of their remaining habitat is on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management which is currently in the process of formally reviewing their State Sage Grouse Management Plans. Make your voice heard by submitting comments through the National Audubon's campaign or visit the BLM Scoping site for more information. Lahontan Audubon is working to develop formal comments as well and the more people who speak up in support of this species the better.
On January 21st, Jeff Bleam led a field trip exploring Damonte Ranch Wetlands. He kept an eBird checklist of the many different species he observed on his walk.
On Friday, January 7th, Jeff Bleam led our first field trip of 2022, visiting Diamond Creek Pond. Below are his field trip report and several photos he submitted from his checklist.
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