Come join our LAS volunteers for an informational talk at Galena Creek Visitor Center. This talk starts at 10am and will be covering the waterfowl of Northern Nevada, including ducks, geese and swans. The events is free and open to the public. We hope to see you at Galena Creek!
 
To see a full schedule of upcoming Galena Creek Visitor Center, click here. ​

Lahontan Audubon Society is excited to partner with the Great Basin Institute to bring you the Galena Creek Visitor Center Speaker Series. These monthly talks will highlight various bird-related topics using LAS's taxidermy mounts. Speakers will include long-time LAS volunteers, Alan Gubanich and Mike Goddard. Talks are scheduled for Saturdays at 10:00 am. The draft schedule and topics are listed below, however, this is subject to change based on volunteer and staff availability, so please check our calendar for the most up to date information. All talks are free and open to everyone.

11/20 - Winter Birds of the Galena Forest with Alan Gubanich
12/11 - Waterfowl of Northern Nevada with Mike Goddard
1/22- Miniscapes of Swan Lake with Bob Goodman
1/29 - Waterfowl of Northern Nevada with Alan Gubanich
2/19 - LBJ's of the Bird World (Little Brown Jobbies)
3/12 - Breeding Birds of the Galena Forest
4/16 - Birding By Ear
5/21 - What Makes a Bird a Bird? - Part 1
6/18 - What Makes a Bird a Bird? - Part 2
7/16 - Hawks of Northern Nevada
​8/20 - Owls of Northern Nevada

We are excited to announce a new bird watching activity challenge hosted by eBird. Birdwatchers who submit 3 separate eBird checklists in a single day will be entered into a raffle to win a pair of Ziess 8x42 binoculars. These checklists can be from the same location at 3 different times or multiple locations throughout the day. The contest is open throughout the month of November. Click the button below to learn about the eBird November Challenge.

"How do I find locations to bird for this challenge?" you ask. This is where our Birding By Bus map is here to help you. Our Birding by Bus map contains a full list of parks and nature areas within the Reno/Sparks metro area. The Cormorant photo above was taken at Virginia Lake, one of the parks featured in our map. Our map contains additional information about each park, such as what birds are currently seen there or which RTC ride bus stop serves it. Our map uses the Google Maps engine, and therefore can give you directions to the parks through your smartphone. The link to our Birding to Bus map is below. If you would like to learn more about the local public transit service, visit rtcwashoe.com.

"I would love to participate, but I do not have an eBird account," you say. Have no fear. We also have an eBird tutorial webinar available. Our Community Engagement Coordinator, Parker Flickinger, and ornithologist Ben Sonnenberg hosted this webinar last month. Parker and Ben are both eBird enthusiasts and covered the basics of how to register for then use eBird to keep track of the birds you observe in your lifetime. This webinar was recorded and available always on our YouTube Channel (linked below).

As always, if you have any other questions about birdwatching in our community, Birding By Bus or using eBird, don't hesitate to contact us. We would love to hear from you.

Good luck on your birdwatching adventure!

eBird is a global birdwatching, citizen science project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Using eBird involves taking a bird walk where you record a checklist including time, place, bird species and number of birds observed. You then submit this checklist to the Cornell Lab via the eBird website, giving the ornithologists data for bird population models. In addition to recording bird species for science, eBird keeps track of all bird species you observed in your life time (a life list). To start submitting your own checklists on eBird, you must first register for an free eBird account. To learn more about eBird or sigh up for an account, click here:

We have a chapter eBird account for Lahontan Audubon Society. Our field trip leaders often keep eBird checklists from our walks, and will be happy to share them with our participants. Lahontan Audubon Sociey members have also shared bird checklists on our chapter account. This gives you a record of the bird species we have observed in our neck of the woods. We also use our chapter account to connect with other eBird users from around the region, and participate in birding events, such as the Global Big Day.   To view our chapter account, click below:

*You must already have an eBird account to view our account.