Talbot County Public Schools new teachers and administrators visit Pickering Creek Audubon Center for teambuilding and challenge course activities. Activities and elements such as Helium Stick, Snakes in a Pit and the Wall are meant to inspire the new teachers to work as a team, problem solve, challenge themselves, and build skills, such as communication, that they can use in the classroom.
Partnerships help protect bird habitat
For the past two years Audubon Maryland-DC has been working with partners on Maryland’s lower eastern shore to protect wildlife habitat from development through the land-use planning process. Audubon’s goals have focused on Important Bird Areas which are sites essential for conserving our more vulnerable bird species.
The goals of our partners vary in emphasis, from a specific watershed (Friends of the Nanticoke River, Nanticoke Watershed Alliance), County focus (Wicomico Environmental Trust), to the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed (Chesapeake Bay Foundation). Their goals also vary in their methods, from protecting land through purchase and management (The Nature Conservancy), protecting land through conservation easements (Lower Shore Land Trust), to promoting environmental awareness through ecotourism (Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experience). What brings these partners together is a common vision for what our environment should look like in the future, and what makes these partnerships powerful is a combination of two things. Each partner adds another voice and another constituency to the growing demand for land protection, yet each partner brings a unique contribution to the overall effort.
Audubon’s unique contribution is its scientific expertise on birds and conservation, and the ability to recruit its national network of the birding constituency to act on conservation causes. With renewed generous funding from the Keith Campbell Foundation, Town Creek Foundation and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Audubon plans to continue working with our partners on the lower shore, and also to expand this work, with new partnerships, to Southern Maryland, where some of coastal Maryland’s most extensive forests face significant development pressures. Watch the Important Bird Area webpage for updates. Read more about this partnership project
Partnering up with Smithsonian's Neighborhood Nestwatch program
“Not too many people get to touch a bird,” says 10-year-old Timothy, after getting to pet a Carolina Chickadee shortly before its release.
Brian Jenelle and Lauren from the Smithsonian Neighborhood Nestwatch Program took measurements and banded birds in front of campers at Pickering Creek Audubon Center EcoCamp this summer, while in Patterson Park, 15+ adult program participants participated on a Saturday morning.
Led by Smithsonian representatives, program participants used the almost invisible mist nets to capture birds for banding and recordings of cardinal calls to attract birds into the nets. After birds were caught, technicians weighed, measured and recorded data. They watched as Jenelle put silver, white, and green bands on a chickadee. “I like how they made a combination of colors” says Mary, another camper.
The Smithsonian's Neighborhood Nestwatch program provides an opportunity to be a biologist in your own backyard. Participants learn about birds and help scientists solve critical questions regarding the survival of backyard bird populations.
Neighborhood Nestwatch volunteers work with scientists to find and monitor bird nests and to record and report their observations. Scientists are especially interested in comparing how successful nests are in urban, suburban, and rural backyards, so Audubon's Pickering Creek in Easton and Patterson Park in Baltimore city provided the perfect venues to compare and contrast.
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have been marking birds with a unique combination colored plastic leg bands so that individual birds can be identified. Participants keep a watchful eye out throughout the year to identify "their" birds and to report their sightings.
Sampling in a 50-mile radius of DC, Jenelle and Brian band eight target species at different sites each morning. They use the data they collect to monitor bird health and check for parasites. Among the birds banded at Pickering and Patterson were cardinals, chickadees, catbird, and Red-winged Blackbird.
Bird Blitz 2009 pinpoints Important Bird Areas
This summer more than 50 Audubon volunteers ventured into forests, marshes and grasslands across Maryland to count and map at-risk bird species with Bird Blitz surveys. The data collected by these citizen scientists helps Audubon staff identify Important Bird Areas, the first step towards protecting and managing our most valuable habitats for birds. The results of more than 100 surveys are mostly in, and Audubon’s Bird Blitz Coordinator, David Yeany II, has begun summarizing the results for each site and posting them on the web. Bird Blitz 2009 was generously supported with funding from Together Green, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and the Maryland Ornithological Society. Read more about Bird Blitz and see results here.
A Great Day in the Park for Boat Lake Breakfast 2009
Patterson Park Audubon Center and Friends of Patterson Park welcomed 70 volunteers and supporters to the annual Boat Lake Breakfast on Saturday, August 8th as a thank you for their continued support in 2009. An early bird walk through the Park and local pastries were enjoyed as guests relaxed with neighbors and the many ducks and swallows that were in the Park that morning. Thanks again volunteers! We couldn’t make our programs so successful without you.
Friends of Patterson Park and PPAC are currently planning this fall’s Youth Volunteer Day on September 26th from 9-11 am. Together, the two organizations invite children to help to keep the Park’s playground looking beautiful by adding native plants and mulch to the garden. All volunteers- big and small- are welcome!
Pickering Creek Audubon Center Honored with National Farm-City Award
Pickering Creek Audubon Center has been recognized by The National Farm-City Council for their outstanding work in accomplishing the Farm-City mission through their leadership of the Pickering Creek Harvest Hoedown. Pickering Creek has been putting on its fabulous Harvest Hoedown for the community for the past 18 years. The Harvest Hoedown, which is held on the second Sunday in October, has great kids activities and musicians, bluegrass and blues for the adults, boat rides, hayrides, local artisans and good food in a fun family atmosphere at Pickering Creek’s 400-acre sanctuary and farm.
For their efforts, Pickering Creek Audubon Center received a National Recognition plaque, which is presented by the National Farm-City Council for outstanding events and activities that bring rural and urban people closer together and foster a greater understanding among them.
“Pickering Creek Audubon Center has shown leadership in telling the story of agriculture and of the rural-urban interdependence in our food and fiber system to the public,” says Al Pell, Chairman of the National Farm-City Council, “and we are pleased to acknowledge their outstanding efforts with this award.”
“Connecting people to the land is central to Pickering Creek’s mission,” said Mark Scallion, Director of Pickering Creek, “we feel that helping people gain a better understanding of where their food comes from is central to creating a healthy community and environment.”
The National Farm-City Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the linkages between farm families and urban residents, providing local organizations with educational programs and materials about the people who grow their food. The National Farm-City Council National Recognition Awards honor organizations, businesses, groups and individuals who strengthen the understanding of the farm-city connections that provide our nation’s food, fiber and shelter. For this distinguished award a maximum of two plaques are awarded per state.
Established in 1955, the National Farm-City Council supports educational programming to build interdependence between rural and urban citizens. Farm-City activities are grassroots in nature. Communities across the nation hold Farm-City events ranging from banquets to tours to job exchanges. Resources provided by the National Farm-City Council are used in classrooms, at Farm-City banquets, at civic club meetings and in other venues. For more information on the National Farm-City Council, visit www.farmcity.org.
Bird-window Collisions: An Uncomfortable Lethal Issue for Architecture and Conservation
Cylburn Arboretum, Baltimore, MD
4915 Greenspring Avenue
(entry to Arboretum off of Cylburn Avenue)
Did you know that millions of America’s most beautiful songbirds die each year by colliding with glass structures? Growing evidence documents bird kills from striking windows as a leading human-associated source of mortality of wild birds, second only to habitat destruction. You are invited to hear a lecture by Dr. Daniel Klem, Professor of Ornithology at of Muhlenberg College, on the issue of songbird collisions with glass structures. The lecture examines architectural and landscape risk factors as well as preventive measures. Dr. Klem is currently working to find solutions that will make glass buildings safer for birds while retaining their aesthetic appeal to humans. This is a program of the Baltimore Bird Club.
September 2, 2009
Bat Zen
Charlotte Hall Library, St. Mary’s County
37600 New Market Road (Rt 6 at Rt 5), Charlotte Hall, MD
Speaker DANA LIMPERT, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Come and learn about the bats of Maryland, a critical yet widely misunderstood group of our native fauna. Dana will bust bat myths and discuss stresses affecting bat populations in the northeast such as wind farms and white nose syndrome. You can also learn how to help these important insect predators by installing bat boxes and learning how to monitor them.
September 19, 2009, 9:00 AM
Monarch Tagging
Audrey Carroll Audubon Sanctuary, just West of Mount Airy, Maryland.
Monarch tagging during this walk will be featured, in support of the international Monarch Watch program. Read more. In addition to the beautiful Monarchs, we're sure to see some of the other 40+ butterfly species we've catalogued, as well as a variety of the resident and migrating birds that populate the Audrey Carroll sanctuary at this time of year.
Come prepared with sturdy shoes, a hat and sunscreen. And if you have binoculars, be sure to bring them along! People of all ages are welcome. We'll meet at 9 AM inside the entry gate to the sanctuary, at 13030 Old Annapolis Road, Mount Airy, 21771. That's located on the North side of the road, just West of Charles Drive and about 1/4 mile East of Detrick Road. Note that no rest room facilities are available. The walk will be cancelled in the event of inclement weather. For more information email Cheryl Farfaras or call 410-313-4726.
23000 Wells Point Rd.
Bozman, MD 21612
Phone: (410) 745-9283
Fax: (410) 822-5041