For those unable to get to our website and wish further detail on our OBO grant
awards, here are capsules on each:
The Friends of Ladd Marsh received funding for their Ladd
Marsh Sandhill Crane Satellite Tracking project. The project will help them
learn where Sandhill Cranes that nest on Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area overwinter.
Monitoring of the birds will help them understand stopover sites during
migrations south and north again to determine if conservation actions are
needed to protect those sites. Many partners are supporting this project. The
Oregon
Fund for Ornithology will support payment of fees to the Argos satellite system
for the collection and download of data.
Azalea Middle School received funding for the Brookings
Azalea Middle School Birding Club. The project introduces children to the wonder
of birds and nature through local after-school trips and Saturday field trips.
OFO funding will provide for the cost of a bus and driver for the trips. The
field trips will instill a love of birds and natural places that will lead to a
conservation ethic and a desire to share and preserve Oregon’s wild places.
Volunteers will be providing skills that will lead to a healthy life-long
hobby.
Toledo Jr/Sr High School will use their grant for their
Oregon Birds Project. The project raises student’s awareness of the avian
species around them and better integrates local birding more regularly into the
school’s science curriculum. Courses are provided as well as participation in
the Hummingbird Citizen Science Project in cooperation with Oregon State
University. Approximately 50 high school students are involved each year. The
requested funds will be used to purchase more binoculars and field guides for
their various classes.
Oregon State University’s Bird Nerds got its award for its
spring field trip that will enable its student members to experience birding in
the Northern Great Basin and encounter species that do not regularly occur in
Western Oregon. They hope to gain an appreciation for sage-steppe ecological
communities and their obligate species by visiting an active Greater
Sage-Grouse lek. They also will practice survey techniques, gain field
experience, and contribute to ongoing research by conducting avian point counts
in established Oregon 2020 plots throughout the region. And, if there is an
opportunity, they hope to represent OSU’s birding community by visiting Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge.
