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|  | | | | In this Issue: | | | | Great Texas Birding Classic Auction | | | | Quintana Spring Fling | | | | Galveston's FeatherFest | | | | Migration Celebration | | | | Spring Migration Tracking | | | | Monthly Bird Banding at GCBO | | | |  | | | | If you found this e-newsletter interesting, please consider taking the next step and becoming a member or volunteering for one of our many outreach activities. If you are already a member, thank you for your support! Check out our Ways to Donate page for more opportunities to support our conservation efforts. | | Photos courtesy of Mike Gray and GCBO staff.
View on GCBO website. April 2011 Great Texas Birding Classic Auction  Time is running out to place your bids in the Birding Classic auction. There are many great items this year so don't miss your chance to support habitat conservation along the Texas coast for birds. Take a look at the Auction Webpage and place your bid today. Bidding will continue through midnight Friday, April 15. Quintana Spring Fling  Come join us at the Quintana Neotropic Bird Sanctuary on Quintana Island in April for our annual Spring Fling event. GCBO staff and volunteers will once again host a welcome station to greet visitors, provide birding information, keep a sightings list, and keep everyone refreshed with drinks and snacks. If you find yourself in need of a new field guide, we'll have some of those too. This year the Quintana patch will feature a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and we know everyone will just have to have one! Come check out our new photography blind too. The host station will be staffed from 9:00am to 4:00pm so come by and visit. Galveston's FeatherFest  Galveston's 9th annual FeatherFest will be held April 7-10, 2011 on Galveston Island. Galveston is one of the top locations for birding in the nation and hosts over 200 species of birds during migration. There will be excursions by bus, boat, or kayak that will visit a variety of habitats from beaches to bays, bay marshes to wetlands, and coastal prairies to upland wood mottes. The Raptors Uncorked evening features a private show of live, free-flying birds of prey and the PhotoFest has been expanded this year. Come enjoy a special tour with Jon Dunn or Big Day Birding with Kevin Karlson! For more information check out the FeatherFest website. Migration Celebration  The 17th annual Migration Celebration event will be held at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge April 15-17, 2011 in southern Brazoria County. This event is held by the Friends of the Brazoria Wildlife Refuges in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This event includes bird banding, marsh buggy tours, kayaking tours, van tours, birds of prey shows, many children's events, a silent auction, and a photo contest. Kathy Adams Clark will present Nature Photography: Tips, Tricks, and Temptations and there is a fund raising dinner at Freeport River Place to support the Texas Midcoast National Wildlife Refuges. For more information check the Migration Celebration website. Spring Migration Tracking  GCBO Research Fellow John Arvin continues to track arriving migrants this spring using radar ornithology. You can follow John's analysis on our website by clicking on the Tracking Spring Arrivals icon as shown above. This fascinating study of migration was pioneered by GCBO Scientific Advisory Board member Sid Gauthreaux. Read John's analysis and then go out in the field and provide him with some ground truthing data! Monthly Bird Banding at GCBO  Join us from 8:00 until noon on Saturday, April 9th for our monthly bird banding session. GCBO Research Associates Robert & Kay Lookingbill will explain the aging and sexing process as they band the birds. Migrants are showing up and you just never know what might turn up! Come out and see what surprises are in store for us. This is a great way to get kids excited about wildlife, but all ages are welcome. See the map on our webpage for directions. Note that mapquest and googlemaps will not guide you to the right place using our address. |
