[texbirds] Recap of Celebrate Urban Birds Events - Austin

From: Jane F Tillman <jtillman@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2015 19:21:51 -0500

Hi, for those of you who are interested in reaching new birders I wanted to
tell you about a City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD)
series of events that we have held for the past four or five years at a
variety of park sites around Austin.
City of Austin PARD got the inspiration from Cornell Lab's Celebrate Urban
Birds webpage http://celebrateurbanbirds.org/ and one year did get a
mini-grant from them.

The events are supported by the Capital Area Master Naturalists, who have a
variety of activities like Migration Challenge and Bird Bistro, and some
Travis Audubon volunteers who lead one hour bird walks, in addition to park
staff and occasionally a bird rehabber. Last year we had a guy who has
racing pigeons come to one event.

With all the events I estimate we reached over 250 adults and kids, and we
could tell that some were truly hooked as a result.

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/ANSC/2015_Celebration_of_Urban_Birds_flyer.pdf
gives a good picture of what goes on.

It has become an annual piece of the Parks and Rec Department programming.

Next year we are going to have a Big Sit so that people can appreciate the
diversity of species that are present even when it seems like there are few
if any. We had 29 species at the Austin Nature and Science Center yesterday
- pretty good for a site that has tons of road noise and lots of foot
traffic. People were treated to 3 Red-shouldered Hawks putting on a display
overhead, a Cooper's Hawk lured in by the bird blind activity, and they
really enjoyed looking at cardinals and doves up close at the blind. We
stationed an 11 year old birder at the blind as a role model. He also
co-led some of the bird walks.

I would be interested in hearing of other Texas cities that might be doing
something similar, so that we can improve our events next year.

Jane Tillman
Austin

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[texbirds] Recap of Celebrate Urban Birds Events - Austin

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