Have you ever thought about how much the “songscape” adds to our enjoyment of the Pagosa Country landscape? At this month’s Weminuche Audubon Society meeting,  Keith Bruno, Southwest Colorado Community Naturalist with Audubon Rockies, will be hosting a session on “Birding by Ear”.  We’ll explore the varied songs and calls of many familiar local and backyard birds. The purpose of this meeting is to improve everyone’s birding by ear skills, as well as encourage volunteers to sign up to help with the fifth year of our citizen science project monitoring bird communities in the forests surrounding Pagosa Springs. Please note that our May meeting will be held on Thursday evening instead of our regular Wednesday time.
Over the past four years, volunteer observers working with this project have identified more than 80 bird species and counted over 7,000 birds at four study sites in the ponderosa pine forests around Pagosa Springs. About half of the bird species that we have observed are resident species found year-round in Pagosa Country, with the other half migrating to our south, some as far as the southern tip of South America. Moreover, we’ve also discovered that about 40 of the bird species we’ve observed, some residents, but many migrants, are losing the battle in terms of population numbers.

This notable concern makes understanding the linkage between habitat quality and bird community composition — a major focus of our project — even more important. But over and above the conservation goals of our study is the experience project volunteers gain through visiting established monitoring points several times during the six weeks of our sample season, from late-May to mid-July, when most of the birds we have studied are building nests and rearing young. In fact, observing bird species like Warbling Vireos, House Wrens, Pygmy Nuthatches, and Common Nighthawks successfully raise their nestlings is one of the greatest rewards from participation in this citizen science endeavor.

If you’d like to participate in our citizen science project this year, you don’t need to be an
accomplished birder – helping observers improve their birding skills is a key goal of the project. You can contact us by emailing weminuche.audubon@gmail.com with any questions.

Join us on Thursday, May 18, at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis St at 6:00 PM for social time before the meeting starts at 6:30pm. In appreciation for our meeting space, we welcome donations of non-perishable food for the church food bank.   Use the following link to join us on Zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82000593178?pwd=N3NXMUs5U2o1SkFlTjlNaXZMSjhsZz09

Meeting ID: 820 0059 3178
Passcode: 711849
One tap mobile
+17193594580,,82000593178#,,,,*711849# US
+13462487799,,82000593178#,,,,*711849# US (Houston)

Dial by your location
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 305 224 1968 US
Meeting ID: 820 0059 3178
Passcode: 711849
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kdMAmI6ZZV