Pin Contest Winner

Pin Contest Winner

Thank you to everyone who submitted their design for the first Eastside Audubon lapel pin contest! We received quite a few submissions, and with an overwhelming vote of 52%, Annika Mohr’s design was selected as the winner for her design of a Great Blue Heron.

My name is Annika Mohr and I’m an incoming high school senior. I like to work both digitally and traditionally. I plan to study art in college and have a career in it too. I enjoy incorporating nature, especially birds, into my art. 

In my pin design, I chose to draw a great blue heron. I first collected multiple references of great blue herons and with my ipad sketched out different poses. After finding my favorite, I tested out different colors and blended them with cross-hatching to add a feathery texture.

What started off as just a random exploration in my city, lead to my inspiration. Across a hidden creek, I saw a great blue heron for the first time. I only got to look at it for a couple seconds before it flew away. Seeing it fly really made me realize how majestic it was. It wasn’t only a huge bird I didn’t recognize, it also surprised me finding it in a random small creek surrounded by highways. It’s stayed on my mind ever since. 

I really love birds, they are all around. Getting to witness all the different shapes, sizes, and colors is something I’m grateful for. When paying attention to birds, it’s like being absorbed into another world. You start to hear all the different chirps and movements that you wouldn’t pay attention to otherwise.

Winning design for the 2024 Eastside Audubon Enamel Pin Contest, by Annika Mohr.

We hope to host this contest again next year, and looking forward to seeing future designs!

Attending the Cornell Young Birders Event

Attending the Cornell Young Birders Event

Written by Song Han Ngo

As a high schooler with a passion for birdwatching, attending the Cornell Young Birders Event was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget. The event, which occurs annually, brings together 16 young birders from across the world to spend the weekend learning about career options in ornithology and birding in Ithaca, New York.

Sapsucker Woods and the Cornell Lab.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is located within the Sapsucker woods, a natural area that contains a variety of habitats ranging from open ponds to evergreen forests. Additionally, the nearby Montezuma National Wildlife refuge offered extensive marshlands and open water, further providing opportunities to see a diverse range of birds. This made each birding trip a unique and exciting excursion, with the young birders spotting 131 species over the event, including some delights such as the Least Bittern and Virginia Rail!

Aside from the birding, the event also focused on meeting and learning from the experiences of the different staff members at the Cornell lab. On the opening night of the event, we were introduced to the unique idea of “Birds and”, which means that birders should seek to bring other non-ornithology related skills and tie it together with the birding world in order to make an impact. Over the next few days, we had the opportunity to meet a variety of people working at the lab, from the developers behind Merlin to field researchers studying penguins in the Southern hemisphere. Whether it be spreading awareness through the community, coding an innovative identification algorithm, or lobbying for the passage of new laws, we were stressed the importance of interdisciplinary skills and encouraged to find out what we want our own “Birds and” to be. 

Sound recording at Shindagin Hollow.

Finally, we were able to experience hands-on learning through different labs guided by Cornell staff. On Saturday morning, we were able to make contributions to the Macaulay library’s audio collection, recording the vibrant songs of little birds such as thrushes and wrens in the nearby Shindagin Hollow. Later that evening, we were taught the processes for editing and annotating the recordings to make them useful for training Merlin’s sound ID feature. We were also given tours of many of the Cornell lab’s facilities, my favorite being the night at the museum, where we were allowed to view and even touch many of the taxidermied specimens of birds that Cornell keeps. The museum has over 50,000 specimens collected since the early 1900s, even including some extinct species such as the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and Passenger pigeon!

Taxidermy being prepared at the museum tour.

Overall, the Cornell Young Birders Event was an incredible opportunity that deepened my passion for birds. It was incredibly inspiring to meet not only the talented and driven Cornell staff but also the other young birders, who shared my enthusiasm for ornithology. Before the event, I had never realized that there were so many other teenagers out there just like me who loved birds just as much as me, and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch and staying friends with them through the years. On top of that, I left the event with a new outlook on what it means to have a career in ornithology. As someone with a strong quantitative background especially in coding and math, I never realized that these skills are relevant and useful to the birding world. I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to help conserve birds using them. I am grateful for what the event has taught me, and look forward to pursuing ornithology in the future.

Birdathon 2024 Recap

Birdathon 2024 Recap

Thanks to everyone who made the 2024 Birdathon a complete success!  With your support, we have surpassed our goal making this year’s Birdathon one of the best Eastside Audubon has ever had!

If you are new to Eastside Audubon or Birdathon, let me give you some context.  Every May, many Audubon chapters run a month-long fundraising campaign called Birdathon.  This can be a complex campaign as every chapter will do it differently and the campaign may be different year to year even within the same chapter.  Our 2024 Birdathon focuses on Team Big Days, Birding Field Trips, Birds and Brews, Global Big Day, and accepting general donations.  As you can imagine, this is a crucial part in funding Eastside Audubon in the next year.

As of writing this note, we have raised about $13,900 for Birdathon!  This does not include our generous match of up to $15,000 from our friends at the Melody S. Robiduox Foundation!  We usually get Birdathon donations for up to a couple of months after the end of May so I fully expect our final number to be even higher.  Thank you all for your support of Eastside Audubon!

I want to take minute to report on our Big Day Teams.  A Big Day is when a team of birders goes out on a day to count as many bird species as they can and raise money from their supporters to push the team to counting more birds and staying out longer.  This year, we had 4 teams.

• Team Bird Brains, captained by past Eastside Audubon President Jim Rettig, started their day in Bothell before making their way to Marymoor Park, the Sammamish Plateau and ultimately to central Washington.  Their day ended with an impressive 90 species seen!  Though impressive, this exact same route in 2011 saw 125 species.  The team noted their concern about continued human development, drought, and effects of wildfire that have worsened since their doing this route 13 years ago.

• Team Newport Nightingales, captained by Perci Olcer and Betsy Swann, is our team from the Birding Club at Newport High School.  Their outing was to the Montlake Fill where they counted 37 species!  A highlight for them was seeing a soaring Green Heron clutching a worm in its beak.  Both Hattie Cifti and Mckenzie Brown are looking forward to doing this again next year!

• Team Karismatic Kestrels, captained by past Eastside Audubon President Andy McCormick, started at Marymoor Park and traveled east on I90, crossing over the Columbia River.  They counted exactly 100 birds with the 100th being a Great Horned Owl perched on a telephone pole as they were starting to make their way back home!

• Finally, Team Pelican Dive Bar, captained by current Eastside Audubon President Jeremy Lucas (me), stayed on its normal route of going out to the coast of southwest Washington to focus on shore and sea birds.  We saw 63 species including, to our surprise, Fork-tailed Storm-petrels in the Westport Marina!  To view our trip report, click here. 

I would also like to give a huge shoutout to everyone that helped lead events for Birdathon.  First, we had 6 field trips led by Chuck Guilford, Kathy Kuyper,  Kendall Wiggins, Andy McCormick, Etta Cosey, and Stan Wood.  Thank you to each of those leaders who ensured that our participants “got on the birds”!  I would also like to thank our Birding Chair Amanda Buse for helping with the organization of some of these walks.  Thank you to John Spilker for helping on our Global Big Day organization.  Global Big Day (very different from the Team Big Day) is still a new and small part of Birdathon and I appreciate John’s efforts in helping drive it for 2024.  Thank you to Amanda Leon, the Executive Director of Eastside Audubon who works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure everything is smooth on game day.  Finally, again, I would like to thank all of YOU for your support of Eastside Audubon and helping us make May 2024 one to remember!

If you are interested in leading any event for Birdathon 2025, or have some interesting ideas, we want to hear from you.  Email me at president@eastsideaudubon.org

With gratitude,
Jeremy Lucas
Board President

Puget Sound Seabird Survey

Puget Sound Seabird Survey - Calling All Birders!

Volunteers conducting surveys © Toby Ross

The Puget Sound Seabird Survey is looking for birders to join this established Community Science program!

Now in its 16th season, you’ll be contributing to valuable science that monitors wintering seabirds across Puget Sound and informs important management decisions. Volunteers are asked to conduct 7 surveys with a small team of fellow surveyors at specific coastal locations. All surveys are synchronized to take place once per month on the first Saturday, October – April. You will be provided training in the survey technique, and ideally will have good seabird identification skills. However, there are roles on the survey team for birders of all levels. This year we started working with the University of Washington on a major research study focusing on seabird distribution and population trends. We’re also planning to collaborate with Birds Canada on a project that will examine the status of seabirds across the entire Salish Sea ecosystem. More information on PSSS can be found on the Puget Sound Bird Observatory website along with a fun Seabird ID quiz. If you’re interested in taking part, please complete this application form or reach out to Program Manager Toby Ross t_ross@pugetsoundbirds.org

Links contained in text:

PSBO Website – https://www.pugetsoundbirds.org/about-psss

Seabird ID quiz - https://forms.gle/4qZZNMvfVmE4yfh68

PSSS Application Form - https://form.jotform.com/241365687010151

Image credit:

Northern Shoveler © Ellen & Tony (no surname provided)

Volunteers conducting survey © Toby Ross

Green Tip of the Month

Eastside Audubon’s Green Tip of the Month for June 2024

According to National Geographic, plastic recycling rates are alarmingly low. In the United States, of the 40 million tons of plastic waste generated in 2021, only 5% to 6% (approximately two million tons) was recycled. As a result of so much plastic waste (everywhere), microplastics are emerging as a serious threat to birds and animals. We can and must do better in reducing our carbon footprint. If you’re reading this article, you’re likely already making efforts to be more environmentally friendly, but here are a couple of ideas to cut back on plastic usage:

Laundry Soap

Let’s do away with laundry jugs! They are cumbersome, mostly filled with water, and rarely recycled even if you put them in your recycling bin. Laundry sheets are a better alternative for the environment. Now the hard part: Which laundry sheets are best, and are they as effective as liquids? Finding a solution that works for you may take some trial and error, but for everyday washes, consider these brands: ECOS, Tru Earth, Eco Roots, HeySunday, Earth Breeze, and Blueland. Look for products made in North America, using non-toxic materials, B-certified companies, vegan ingredients, and packaged in recycled or compostable materials. For deep stains, though, you may still prefer liquids.

Dishwasher Soap

There are many options for dishwashing that minimize environmental impact. The editors at The Reduce Report reviewed over a dozen brands, considering ingredients, emissions, and plastic reduction. Their top picks include Ecover, Dropps, and Thrive Market dishwasher powder. These brands are phosphate-free, fragrance-free (optional), hypoallergenic, and chlorine-free. They also mention Seventh Generation as a budget-friendly option when Thrive Market is not on sale.

Sustainable Jungle recommends Claro All-in-One Phosphate-Free Eco Dishwasher Tablets for excellent cleaning results without phosphates or chlorine. They also rate Ecoleaf Dishwasher Tablets, which come with a built-in rinse aid.

See you next month!

Enamel Pin Art Contest

Enamel Pin Art Contest - Calling All Artists!

Eastside Audubon wants to make a 2024 collectible pin, and we need your help!

What is a 2024 collectible pin?  I am glad you asked!  We are creating an annual pin that will be different year-to-year for our members, volunteers, and friends to collect.  It’s a fun way to create some swag that will change every year.

We’re seeking designs for the new pin. We ask that design submissions include the following:

1. Incorporate either “Eastside Audubon” or “EAS”.

2. Make sure the year 2024 is the design.

3. The Pin will be small, approx. 1x1”, so please make sure your design is bold.

4. Birds included in the design should be birds found in Washington State. Seabirds found in our coastal waters or migratory birds also count!

No need to try to copy our current logo, or use a Stellar’s Jay. We’re looking for a fresh and creative design for the pin. This contest is open to everyone, regardless of involvement or location.

Our members will select the winner by voting on the artwork.  We will use the winning artwork and make the pins. 

When thinking about your design, remember the final product will be a lapel pin meant to fit on a lanyard or hat, so don’t get too crazy with a lot of detail.  The winner will also be featured in an article in the Corvid Crier.

Submit your art designs to use by July 15, 2024!

Please email your submission to office@eastsideaudubon.org

Let’s see what you got!!!