General Meetings
Held the third Wednesday of each month except June, July, August, and December at 7:00 pm for social time and 7:30 pm for the program at Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 1750 North Altadena Drive, Pasadena.
Directions to Eaton Canyon
Current Program
Palms to Pines Birding and Nature Trail
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Kurt Leuschner
A new map listing ten birding hot spots in the Coachella Valley and surrounding mountains has just been published. Kurt Leuschner, Associate Professor of
Natural Resources at College of the Desert in Palm Desert, completed this
project during a recent sabbatical.
Each stop is within an easy drive of the trail's starting point at
the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center in Palm Desert (phone 760-862-9984). The map details directions and contact
information, a list of habitats and signature bird species, wildlife viewing opportunities, and other pertinent information.
Come to the February meeting and learn more about this diverse and beautiful area from an expert naturalist with experience across the U.S. and around the world. Copies of the map will be available at the meeting.
Upcoming Programs
Nerds and Birds
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
John Garrett
Due to a generous grant from the Pasadena Audubon Soceity, 16-year-old John Garrett was able to attend the American Birding Association's 2009 Young Birder Conference. Based in San Diego, California, he naturally didn't see many life birds, although that wasn't the purpose of the conference anyway. Besides meeting new fellow teenage bird-nerds, he had the opportunity to visit parts of the state he hadn't (or at least not very often) before, improve his feeble sketching skills, and learn about what it means to be a young birder in this generation. Come join John as he relates his unique experiences from a unique conference!
Special Events
The Wrentit Club
All year
Pasadena Audubon Society is promoting eBird and the new
"Wrentit Club". The idea is simple: Identify as many species of bird in Los Angeles County for the calendar year 2010 as you can. Then, submit your year-list to WrentitClub@PasadenaAudubon.org.
Sound easy so far?
After all the lists are submitted, we will
tally and award the following:
- 50-99 The Finches
- 100-140 The Rails
- 150-199 The Vireos
- 200-249 The Owls
- 250+ The Wrentit Club
We will list your total award on a perpetual list/board.
Feel daunted? Don't! Our field trips will indicate
if they count towards your Wrentit Club total (look
for the "WC" icon!) and you are invited to contact John Garrett,
Mark Scheel, or Ron Cyger for tips and recommendations.
So, beginning January 1, 2010, begin tallying! Use of eBird
is not required. But, if you use eBird
( www.eBird.org )
enter your bird lists, it will automatically generate
your year list for LA County, help researchers study
population trends, and gain you brownie points.
Ron Cyger, John Garrett, and Mark Scheel
So, you want to get involved in the Wrentit Club, but are not sure how to get started with eBird?
- Tip #1: Create an eBird account
- Tip #2 Submit a checklist of birds
- Tip #3: Casual Observation and effort
When do I use "Casual Observation" as opposed to the other options?
Letting
us know how you went birding is an important part of completing the data
entry process. By filling out simple effort information we can learn more
about the presence of birds in your area. For example, if you simply choose
"Casual Observation" when in fact you did something more rigorous, we won't
know because you are not required to fill out the effort information. You
might have seen a Bald Eagle fly over your car on the way to work in the
morning, which is truly a casual observation. This is valuable information.
It tells us that a species was at a location on a specific date. On the
other hand you might have seen a Bald Eagle while birding for an hour at
your local refuge and you might have reported all the species you observed,
but still selected "Casual Observation" as the methodology. By submitting a
complete checklist of birds and telling us how much time you spent and how
you collected the data, we can learn much more about the birds in your area.
If you answer "yes" to the question, "Are you reporting all the species you
observed," then you definitely didn't perform a casual observation! From
this type of observation we can learn about the abundance of Bald Eagle
relative to the other species on the checklist, and we can know how much
time you spent trying to find the birds on that checklist, which provides
information on detectability. Think about how easy it is to spot and eagle
compared with say, a rail! If you still choose "Casual Observation" as the
type of observation, these important data will not be included in many of
our analyses and output tools. Be sure to understand the type of survey
you're conducting, and don't be afraid to choose something more rigorous
than "Casual Observation," especially when you are the ones doing all the
work! Read more about this.
What do you mean by "effort" and why do I have to enter time and distance
information?
Information about how much time you spent watching birds and
how far you traveled will help us determine the relative abundance of the
birds you reported. For example, finding 50 Black-capped Chickadees in 15
minutes while standing in one place indicates a much different density of
chickadees than if you recorded 50 Black-capped Chickadees in four hours
while driving 10 miles. Without the time and distance information, eBird
biologists won't be able to make a reliable estimate of density.
- Tip #4: eBird Alerts
A new feature of eBird is *eBird Alerts*. This service will email you on a
regular basis with birds seen in a state that are not on you eBird list
(another good reason to keep up your eBird list).
Go to http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/subscribe-to-ebird-alerts and sign
up.
Then, when you receive the reports from eBird, simply search for "angeles"
to jump to the Los Angeles County reports (or search in any other way to
meet your needs).
Great way to be the first (or, actually second) to know about a bird!
Great Backyard Bird Count!
February 12-15, 2010
This is year 13 for the huge event that gets both avid birders and ordinary folks involved in conservation and recreation. By keeping it to a short time period Cornell University and the Audubon Society have been successful in getting very large numbers of participants. For many people the GBBC is their first organized birding activity.
The GBBC has been a gold mine of information for scientists who are trying to determine the impact of climate change on native bird populations. Recent counts show dramatic northward shifts for some winter residents. It would be impossible to get such comprehensive data across the entire continent without the participation of so many volunteers.
You can get an excellent start on involving yourself, or your friends and neighbors, by visiting the GBBC website at www.birdcount.org .
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