By Jennie Jones Scherbinski Lahontan Audubon Society is truly a special organization full of amazing volunteers and dedicated members and I am so proud of all the work that we have accomplished over the past two years. Unfortunately, I have made the decision to step away from my leadership role and I have asked the board to begin recruiting for the next Executive Director. Some of you may know that my husband and I welcomed our first son last year and I have been doing double duty as a full-time mom and part time executive director. As LAS continues to grow, I feel that I will no longer be able to provide the level of attention that it deserves. This was an incredibly difficult decision for me, but ultimately I think it is in the best interest of the organization and I am confident that we can find someone to take LAS to the next level. I will remain involved with LAS and work to ensure all the momentum we have built continues forward. Our programs have started to garner attention nationally and I am so excited to see where the next chapter leads us. Thank you all for your support over the last few years. It has been an honor to serve you. Based on the overwhelming success of the LAS Costa Rica international trips completed early this year, LAS in partnership with Crescentia Expeditions is offering a special birding trip focused on the birds of Southern Costa Rica (1/27/23-2/5/23). On this trip we will visit National Parks and private reserves and biological stations covering a variety of habitats: Pacific rainforest lowlands, intermountain valleys, cloud forests, and alpine páramo. The tour is designed for birders with some level of experience and who want to expand their knowledge of neotropical birds. Our guide will again by Mario Córdoba, one of Costa Rica’s top birders. Join us for a fun and educational trip! Join us as we help support 2 local conservation groups and visit national parks and private reserves. Our small group (10 participants max) will be led by local, expert guide, Mario Cordoba.
During our trip we’ll visit: - Pacific rainforest lowlands near Golfito and Osa Peninsula, - Las Cruces Biological Station in San Vito intermountain valley - Talamanca cloud forest mountains in San Gerardo de Dota This tour is designed for birders with some level of experience seeking to expand their knowledge about neotropical birds. The trip includes all lodging, all meals, professional birding guide, private a/c coach, entrance fees, printed checklist, purified drinking water & gratuities. Price per person: 9-10 birders: $3650 7-8 birders: $3900 Single supplement $600 What is the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey?
Shorebirds represent a unique aspect of biodiversity that links isolated sites, often hundreds or thousands of miles apart, and thus, shorebirds are excellent indicators of environmental health across large and small landscapes. Inland sites in the Intermountain West are oases for our migratory shorebirds. Our collective efforts will document changes to freshwater wetlands and saline lakes over the past 30 years by recreating the last comprehensive shorebird survey of the region in 1989-1995. By combining the efforts of professional and volunteer scientists, we will collect critical information to help sustain shorebird populations into the future, which is the purpose of the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey. The project objectives are:
We need help collecting baseline site information (access points, observation locations, and potential hazards), designing routes and surveying sites. We will be providing more details on what information we need and how to collect it during our upcoming webinar sessions. Please fill out the online form below if you are interested in visiting a familiar or new shorebird site to help design surveys and count shorebirds during our migration windows (August 9th – 22nd and April 24th – 30th), any effort helps shorebirds count! Mileage reimbursement is available on a case-by-case basis. Save the dates!
Ready to get involved? Our chapter was honored to be a guest at the Mark Wellman Adventure Day event last Sunday. Mark Wellman adventure day is an event at Sparks Marina where disabled people have the opportunity to try outdoor activities such as kayaking and rock climbing. Our staff brought along a number of resources for participants to learn and interact with, including binoculars and museum skins. We had a wonderful time speaking with and entertaining guests who stopped by. We also kept a small bird list of the species we observed flying by as we spoke with guests. Sparks Marina is a wonderful birding hotspot and without intentionally seeking, we observed 22 different species. A full list is included as part of the trip report below. Our staff sends a huge thank you to all the partner organizations involved including:
We are so excited to welcome two new trustees to our board of directors. Sally “Lolly” Bates and Lauren Whitenack will be starting their 3 year terms on July 1st and Suzie Reynolds has been elected to serve a second term. We are so grateful to have these three serve on our board and we are looking forward to working with them. We also want to send a big thank you to our outgoing board members, Valerie Andersen and Olivia Sembach. Valerie has been instrumental in getting our Area Birding Guides updated and helped develop the Urban Waterfowl Interpretive Panels for Virginia Lake and Sparks Marina. Olivia has been our webmaster and was responsible for getting our website updated and creating the Native Plants for Birds pages.
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