For complete details, please click on this link: https://www.yorkcountyaudubon.org/events/ycas-2023-birding-challenge-to-support-the-maines-young-birders-club
The 2023 Birding Challenge is coming on May 20th!
Revision of YCA Bylaws
Over the last six months, YCA’s Board of Directors took on the task of reviewing our current Bylaws which had been drafted in 2004 (with a minor amendment in 2013) . Many changes were required to enable them to accurately reflect our current operations and our thoughts for the organization’s future. On April 18th, the Board unanimously approved the new version.
Our June 20th annual meeting will precede our program that evening. At that time, we’ll be seeking our members approval of these revised Bylaws. You can use the links below to review both the 2004 Bylaws and the proposed 2023 Bylaws.
Beach Plum Farm Eco-fest in Ogunquit on Saturday, May 20th
Please join York County Audubon and many other great organizations at the Beach Plum Farm Eco-fest from 10 – 2 on Saturday, May 20th. Beach Plum Farm is a wonderful spot right on Route 1 in Ogunquit. It’s the last remaining salt water farm in Ogunquit, home to community gardens, and the office of Great Works Regional Land Trust, who acquired and permanently protected it. FMI: https://gwrlt.org/beach-plum-farm-preserve/
Our 2023 Birding Challenge — to Support the Maine Young Birders Club
York County Audubon needs your support! YCA was founded in 1968, and for the past 55 years, has promoted a wide variety of conservation activities and initiatives to benefit thousands of people. A few years back, we realized that there was an unmet need: a program that specifically focused on young birders. So, in 2016, we launched the Maine Young Birders Club (MYBC).
Since then, many young birders aged 11 to 18 have actively participated and gained a greater understanding of the natural world, while connecting with and being inspired by like-minded young people. While MYBC members do pay a small annual fee to participate, we’re looking to raise funds to support the club’s efforts and expand our membership to reach under-served communities.
Starting in 2001 and continuing for fifteen years, YCA hosted an annual Birding Challenge, and it was our most prominent fundraiser. Now, after a few years’ hiatus, our Birding Challenge is back! This year, our goal is to establish solid funding for the MYBC, something the young participants and the dedicated club coordinators really deserve.
The Birding Challenge is a twenty-four hour event in which teams of participants attempt to identify as many bird species as possible, asking friends, family and businesses to sponsor them at whatever level they wish. Every donation will help, large or small!
For the first time this year, we’ll be making use of an online portal dedicated to the Challenge, where you can pledge a donation, either a fixed amount or on a ‘per-species’ basis. You can access our fundraiser page and make a pledge or donation at https://tinyurl.com/yca-bc-2023. There’s also information there describing how you can participate if you’d like. Just scroll down that page and click on “About” and “FAQ’s.”
We would be very grateful for your support in any way. Thank you so much!
As a Chapter of Maine Audubon, a recognized 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions to York County Audubon are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
Saving Birds With Maine’s Commercial Forest: the 30-Year Bird Project – with Anna Siegel – Tuesday, May 16th – at the Wells Reserve and via Zoom
In 2019, an alarming article from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported that three billion North American birds have been lost since 1970 (about 30%). Maine’s nearly 10-million-acres of commercial forest form the heart of National Audubon’s largest Important Bird Area of Global Significance in the contiguous U.S. What role does this enormous area play in national-scale land bird conservation? This fertile breeding ground still supports a wide range of bird species of conservation concern.
In 2021 and 2022, the “30-Year Bird Project” replicated a groundbreaking 1990s study to understand how bird populations have changed as a result of changes in forest practices. The project has involved three generations of scientists. Anna Siegel, the Outreach Lead of the project, will describe what the team has learned and how forest practices might change to further support bird conservation while also sustaining rural, forest-based communities.
Anna Siegel is climate justice activist, young birder, and high school student. She is the Advocacy Director of Maine Youth Action, a Core member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice, and serves on her town’s Climate Action Task Force. She is also a member of the Maine Young Birders Club and is an avid hiker.
This program will be presented in-person in the Mather Auditorium of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and will also be viewable via Zoom. To view via Zoom, you’ll need to register in advance.
To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DU-HSEE4TZ6BCYKA0NUnrw#/registration
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us in-person, or, if not, via Zoom!
A Video of our April 2023 program: Native Plants: Good for What Ails Your Garden – with Shawn Jalbert
This program was presented on April 18, 2023 in-person at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm and via Zoom. To watch it, please click on the image below to watch it on this page, or you can click on “Watch on Youtube” at the bottom of that image. (We also recommend clicking on the little white square in the bottom right corner of that viewing screen to convert the image to “full screen”). For a description of the program, you can scroll down to the original post for the program.
The Harlequin – Spring 2023
Please click on the link below to view the Spring 2023 issue of our Harlequin newsletter:
https://www.yorkcountyaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Harlequin-Spring-2023.pdf
Native Plants: Good for What Ails Your Garden – with Shawn Jalbert – Tuesday, April 18th – at the Wells Reserve and via Zoom
It’s almost spring and we’ve all got a hankering to get back outside to do some landscaping and gardening. Instead of grabbing the same old plants off the garden center shelves, consider going the native route.
Native trees, shrubs, and perennials are the glue that holds our ecosystems together and are directly tied to the health of our environment. All of our backyards could use some extra natives planted in them, but sometimes you don’t have to recreate the wheel; recognizing and preserving the natives we already have growing around us is important too.
We will learn how the food web revolves around native plants; the more we have in our yards the richer the biodiversity of our neighborhoods, from the birds to the bees. These actions have tangible results we can see, smell, hear, and even taste. Join us for an empowering evening on how native plants are the best medicine for what ails our landscapes.
Shawn Jalbert is the owner and operator of Native Haunts, based in Alfred, Maine. He has made it his mission to make native plants, and the knowledge of their critical importance, available to the general public. “Native Haunts” is an “old-timey” term to describe native plants in their natural habitats. For the last 20 years, he’s made it his mission to sustainably propagate and sell native plant materials, but more importantly, to share the vast knowledge he has accumulated through his personal experience and his intense studies as a lecturer and consultant. FMI: https://nativehaunts.com/
This program will be presented in-person at 7 p.m. in the Mather Auditorium of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and will also be viewable via Zoom. To view via Zoom, you’ll need to register in advance.
To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vALL9WzQRi6z_RvircuAig
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us in-person, or, if not, via Zoom!
Enjoy a quick word from Holly Merker, our March 21st Presenter!
If the video doesn’t run on this page, please click on the “Youtube” in the lower right corner of the video box.
Winter Seabirds in Maine – a workshop with Ed Jenkins – Saturday, March 11th
THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN FULLY BOOKED. IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE WAITING LIST, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO ycas@yorkcountyaudubon.org WITH “WORKSHOP WAITING LIST” AS THE SUBJECT
Seabirds are, by their very nature, enigmatic and difficult to observe closely. They are superbly adapted for life out at sea, specialized in a myriad of ways to fill every niche in an environment that may seem harsh and desolate to us.
Even in Maine where seabirds are present in large numbers, getting close enough to begin to understand their fascinating lives can be tough, especially as they face growing conservation challenges. This program will start with an overview of seabird ecology, from how they find food at sea, to their incredible migration strategies, before focusing on the species that can be found in Maine in the winter, from razorbills and murres to gulls and sea ducks. We will then conduct a ‘sea-watch’ from the coastal cliffs, learning to identify passing birds, including, hopefully, some passing rarities.
This workshop will be held on Saturday morning, March 11, 2023, from 8:00 am till (about) 11 am. at the Cliff House in Cape Neddick (whose support for this event is greatly appreciated). It will include both an indoor presentation and discussion, and an outdoor search for seabirds.
Advance registration is required. To register, please click on this event in the What’s Coming Up column on the right hand side at the top of this page, then scroll down to the registration form. The price is $25/person ($30/person for non-members), payable by cash or check at the workshop.
Ed Jenkins has been working with seabirds for the past decade, in Maine for National Audubon, but also elsewhere in the US and abroad, from New Zealand to Malta. Originally from the UK, he received his M.Sc. studying seabirds in Newfoundland in 2018, and now works as an avian biologist at the Biodiversity Research Institute in Portland.
A Video of our February 2023 program: All About Loons with Dr. James Paruk
This program was presented on February 21, 2023 via Zoom. To watch it, please click on the image below to watch it on this page, or you can click on “Watch on Youtube” at the bottom of that image. (We also recommend clicking on the little white square in the bottom right corner of that viewing screen to convert the image to “full screen”). For a description of the program, you can scroll down to the original post for the program.
“Ornitherapy: Watching birds is not only fun, it’s good for you!” via Zoom with Holly Merker on Tuesday, March 21st
Learn why getting your daily dose of Ornitherapy is just what the doctor ordered!
We’re pushed and pulled in many directions, no matter our age. If we allow birds and nature to slow us down, we are practicing “selfcare”. Research shows that exposure to nature actively reduces stress, depression, and anxiety, while helping build a stronger heart and immune system. Birds are gateways into deeper experiences with nature, magnifying these benefits. Through observation, we can learn not only about birds, but gain insight into our own lives while exploring our connection to the world around us. This fosters stewardship and bolsters conservation.
Within the program, we’ll delve into our connections to birds, how to practice Ornitherapy for optimal benefits, and learn about the latest research in the power of nature for overall well being.
Holly Merker is a professional birding guide, writer, and educator who has a background in art therapy, but today uses birds and nature towards the same goals delivering nature-based wellness programming to people of all ages.
Holly has been a professional environmental educator and birding instructor for the past two decades, working for: National Audubon, the American Birding Association, Hillstar Nature, and many other organizations. She is also a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide (ANFT).
Holly is lead author of the award-winning book Ornitherapy: For Your Mind, Body, and Soul (Crossley Books, 2021) which guides readers into explorations that optimize the wellness benefits birding can provide us. In her free time, Holly spends every possible moment practicing Ornitherapy herself, which she credits in helping her defeat breast cancer, restoring her health mentally.
On Tuesday, March 21st at 7 p.m., York County Audubon is very pleased to present a Zoom program Ornitherapy – with Holly Merker.
This program will be presented via Zoom. There’s no charge, but you need to register in advance. To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W3dKKZv4QPiqexfeglN_RQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us!
“All About Loons” with Dr. James Paruk via on Tuesday, Feb 21st
The eerie call, the distinctive black and white speckled plumage, the red eyes. We are so fortunate in Maine that loons grace our lakes and ponds, but how much do you really know about them?
Dr. James D. Paruk, professor of biology at Saint Joseph’s College, is considered one of the world’s experts on this species. Understanding the breeding and non-breeding ecology of the Common Loon has been one of his life-long a passion of his for decades. He has studied breeding loons in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Saskatchewan and Maine and non-breeding loons in California, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Maine. He spent 7 years monitoring the health of a population of loons off the Louisiana coast in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He is also the author of the acclaimed “Loon Lessons: Encounters with the Great Northern Diver.”
On Tuesday, February 21st at 7 p.m., York County Audubon is very pleased to present a Zoom program ”All About Loons” with Dr. James Paruk. He’ll present the most current detailed account of what we know about loons, from their plumage and migration routes to how old they live and how long a pair stays together.
This program will be presented via Zoom. There’s no charge, but you need to register in advance. To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hfT7QJp8SiiyKCBl3Ic7Pg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us!
Winter Wildlife Tracking with Dan Gardoqui – Sunday, Feb 5th
Can you tell the tracks of a fox from a fisher? Ever trailed a porcupine to its den? Join Certified Wildlife Tracker and Registered Maine Guide Dan Gardoqui for an outdoor adventure. This workshop is open to all curious adults (& interested teens). We’ll spend half a day seeking out, interpreting and following the tracks, trails and signs of our wild neighbors living on the Wells Reserve. Bring your own food/snacks and dress warmly.
Dan Gardoqui has been passionately connecting people to the more-than-human-world for over 30 years. He has a M.S. in Natural Resources and has served as faculty for multiple colleges. Through wildlife tracking, Dan has contributed to wildlife studies (including wolf, lynx and flying squirrel) and served as science editor for the bird language book What the Robin Knows. Dan is the founder of Lead with Nature, where he offers nature-based consulting, online classes and guiding for businesses and individuals.
Group size is limited to 15 people, and advance registration is required. This program is co-sponsored by YCA and the Wells Reserve. The price is $25/person ($30/person for non-members). Members of either YCA or the Wells Reserve qualify the members rate. To reserve your space, please email suzanne@wellsnerr.org or call (207) 646-1555 x116.
“A World on the Wing” with Scott Weidensaul via Zoom, Tuesday, November 15th
In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations―how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis―is nothing short of extraordinary.
On Tuesday, November 15th, please join York County Audubon for a Zoom presentation: “A World on the Wing” with Scott Weidensaul. Based on his bestselling book of the same name, author and researcher Scott Weidensaul takes you around the globe — with researchers in the lab probing the limits of what migrating birds can do, to the shores of the Yellow Sea in China, the remote mountains of northeastern India where tribal villages saved the greatest gathering of falcons on the planet, and the Mediterranean, where activists and police are battling bird poachers — to learn how people are fighting to understand and save the world’s great bird migrations.
Scott Weidensaul is the author of nearly 30 books on natural history, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Living on the Wind and his latest, the New York Times bestseller A World on the Wing. Weidensaul is a contributing editor for Audubon and writes for a variety of other publications, including Living Bird. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and an active field researcher, studying saw-whet owl migration for more than two decades, as well as winter hummingbirds in the East, bird migration in Alaska, and the winter movements of snowy owls through Project SNOWstorm, which he co-founded.
This program will be presented via Zoom. There’s no charge, but you need to register in advance. To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Jvj4zeVbTSK5wW53q4SstQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us!
2022 Bird Seed Sale – Early Bird Pricing Deadline is October 28th
Keep your feathered friends happy this winter by treating them to tasty and fresh, premium quality bird food and help support two of your favorite environmental organizations at the same time. Profits from our annual sale support the educational programs of both York County Audubon and the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. A wide variety of types of seed and suet is available, with great pricing, especially if you order early.
Early bird pricing is available if you place your order by 4 p.m. on Friday, October 28th. The instructions for ordering are on the order form which you can access via the link in red below.
Order pick up (and additional opportunity for purchases) will be at the Wells Reserve on Friday, November 4th from 1 – 4 p.m., and Saturday, Nov 5th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with easy access and volunteers on hand to help load your car.
For more information, please access the order form via this link:
A Video of our October 2022 Program: All the Best Birds in Maine with Nick Lund
This program was presented on October 18, 2022 at the Wells Reserve. To watch the program, please click on the image below to watch it on this page, and you can also click on “Watch on Youtube.” (We also recommend clicking on the little white square in the bottom right corner of that viewing screen to convert the image to “full screen”). For a description of the program, you can scroll down to the original post for the program.
The Harlequin – Autumn 2022
Please click on the link below to view the Autumn 2022 issue of our Harlequin newsletter:
https://www.yorkcountyaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Harlequin-Autumn-2022.pdf
“All the Best Birds in Maine” with Nick Lund – Tuesday, Oct 18th, in-person and via Zoom
Maine is a top destination for birders, as it’s known for the wonderful species that are regularly found here, as well as a good number of rarities that frequently drop by. One of those most familiar with this world is Nick Lund, who’s well known to birders throughout Maine and far beyond its borders. On Tuesday, October 18th, at 7 p.m., please join us for Nick’s program, “All the Best Birds of Maine,” as Nick will take us on a whirlwind tour of as many of Maine’s “best” birds as he can squeeze into an hour of entertaining facts and anecdotes.
Nick is the author of the American Birding Association’s newly released ABA Field Guide to the Birds of Maine. He’s been well known for years as the man beyond the popular birding blog known as “The Birdist.” His birding and nature writing has appeared in Audubon magazine, Slate.com, the Washington Post, NationalGeographic.com, the Maine Sportsman, Down East magazine, Popular Science and others. A Maine native, he’s a graduate of the UMO School of Law, and worked in Washington, D.C. on protecting our national parks, before (wisely) electing to return to Maine and join Maine Audubon as its Advocacy and Outreach Manager.
This program will be presented in-person in the Mather Auditorium of the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and will also be viewable via Zoom. To view via Zoom, you’ll need to register in advance.
To do so, please click on this link and enter your name and email address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-o597jj1SV2p4p8OqKLHHA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We hope you can join us in-person, or, if not, via Zoom!
The 2023 Maine Birds Desk Calendar is now available!
For many years, our former Board member, Marie Jordan, an avid birder and photographer, has produced a calendar and offered it for sale, graciously donating the calendars to YCA to support our educational programs. As many of our programs are now presented via Zoom, so we’re making the calendars available by mail.
It’s a desk calendar in a 4” by 6” plastic case that opens into a stand to display each month. Each page features a great photo she took this year of a Maine bird. The cost is $10 plus mailing costs. They’re wonderful anywhere in the house, and also make great gifts! And York County Audubon tremendously appreciates your support for our programs.
To place an order, please make out a check payable to York County Audubon, write Calendar in the memo line, and mail it to Marie Jordan, 32 Crestview Drive, South Portland, ME 04106. Be sure to include the address or addresses that the calendar(s) should be sent to. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Marie at wooddk5555@gmail.com.
The costs including postage and handling are:
1 calendar – $10 plus $5.00 postage and handling
2 calendars (mailed to one address) – $20 plus $5.50 postage and handling
3 calendars (mailed to one address) – $30 plus $10.50 postage and handling
4 calendars (mailed to one address) – $35 plus $10.50 postage and handling
(Note: these rates reflect the latest USPS increases.)
Thank you!