Blog – 2018

December 9, 2020 — You know that feeling you get when birds come to your feeder or when you pass through a mixed flock of songbirds in the woods? That’s happiness and, it turns out, those birds are bringing it to you.

December 9, 2020 — 2020 marks the third year in a row that Charity Navigator has designated Connecticut Audubon a four-star organization. Out of approximately 1,000 non-profits in Connecticut, only 48 received four stars in 2020. “This is our highest possible rating and indicates that your organization adheres to sector best practices and executes its mission in a financially efficient way.”

December 8, 2020 — Connecticut’s Piping Plovers fared poorly during the 2020 breeding season. Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds was forced to cut back on its protection work. Only when restrictions were eased during summer and the work-pace picked up did Piping Plovers do better. It’s an important enough issue that we wrote about it in this year’s State of the Birds report and are highlighting it here.

December 7, 2020 —  Join us on Thursday and Friday, December 10 and 11, for this two-day, six-hour virtual course and learn techniques to create landscapes that are “ecologically functioning” as well as beautiful. This course, presented by New Directions in the American Landscape and co-sponsored by The Connecticut Audubon Society, will illustrate how to apply these altered practices in a variety of settings including meadows, shrublands, woodlands, and fine gardens.

December 7, 2020 — The Young, Gifted, and Wild About Birds series on Zoom starts next week with “#BlackBirdersWeek: The hashtag that started a movement,” featuring co-founder Deja Perkins.

December 6, 2020 — Dovekies, murres, guillemots, puffins, razorbills — these are the Alcids of Connecticut. Some are rare. When they are here, they can be hard to observe, given their preference for the sea. But they’re fascinating and worth learning about.

December 21, 2020 — Birding and bird conservation is a lot more fun when you can share your stories. When a rare bird arrives, people spread the news. When a bird needs help, it becomes a rescue tale to be recounted. When something as simple as groups of beautiful birds show up at feeders, feeder-watchers can’t wait to let you know about it. For our 2020 Birds of the Year, we have the usual array of interesting rarities. But we also have great stories to make the list come alive.

December 5, 2020 — ‘Tis the season for Christmas Bird Counts. Keep alert for French hens and turtle doves, and take extra time scrutinizing all the pear trees you might come upon. Here’s the schedule of CBC’s in Connecticut.

December 2, 2020 — Recently we started using closed captioning on our Zoom programs, for people who might have difficulty hearing the presenters. It works great. But it also produces funny transcriptions of bird names. See if you can figure out what they are.