NEWSLETTERS

The Cape Cod Bird Club publishes a quarterly newsletter, the Kingfisher.  Selected past issues are now available on the Newsletters page.

2012 Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens Scholarship

The results are in, and CCBC has awarded birding camp scholarships to two deserving Cape Cod teens!

Ms. Jetta Cook, 15, of Eastham and Mr. Eric Hardy, 16, of Yarmouthport will be attending the National Audubon Society Project Puffin Coastal Main Bird Studies for Teens Camp at Audubon's spectacular Hog Island, located in Maine's Muscongus Bay, for the week of June 24-29, 2012. Jetta and Eric both attend Nauset Regional High School in Eastham.

\Jetta volunteers with both the National Park Service and the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Eric got into birding as a member of Peter Trull's Lighthouse Charter School Bird and Nature Club.

Both teens will write up their camp experiences for the Fall 2012 Kingfisher and will be given an opportunity to attend one of the CCBC's fall meetings to give a presentation and to answer questions about their summer experience.

submitted by: Scholarship Committee, Peter Bono (Chair), Alice Berry, Charles Martin

Other Programs of Interest

There are some great bird and other nature programs coming up soon.  Check out the Other Programs of Interest for more information!

DO YOU HAVE OWLS?

To help locate owls for the state's Breeding Bird Atlas, Mass Audubon's website has a new "Owl Reporter." http://www.massaudubon.org/owls/

Help Us Find Massachusetts' Owls

Join our state-wide effort to document owl populations in Massachusetts! 

Owls are everywhere. Some species can be found in dense forests or small wood lots. Others may prefer swamps, or open marshes, grasslands, or even residential neighborhoods. 

Do you have owls in your neighborhood? It is very possible, but because they are nocturnal they often go unnoticed. Usually the best indication that there is an owl in the area is its call. 

Have you heard or seen an owl but need some assistance identifying it? We have provided photos and recordings of the seven species of owls that nest in Massachusetts.

Once you have identified your owl, please use our Owl Reporter to plot the location and date of the sighting. http://www.massaudubon.org/owls/report/sign_in.php

As always, please take care not to disturb any owl you find. 

Your owl location information will be included as a valuable subset of a larger database for Mass Audubon's five-year, statewide Breeding Bird Atlas project, a volunteer-based effort designed to map the distribution of all the breeding birds in the Commonwealth. 

HAVE YOU ANY SPARE USED OPTICS/GUIDES?

If so, please bring them to one of the upcoming meetings, starting in December.

To successfully address Neotropical migratory bird issues, good science and public awareness are essential. However, in the Neotropics, many researchers, educators, and conservationists work without the most basic equipment. The ABA addresses this need for equipment and educational tools and contributes to bird conservation through its Birders' Exchange program (http://www.americanbirding.org/bex/). Birders' Exchange takes new and used birding equipment and educational materials and matches it with local scientists, conservationists, and educators in  Latin America and the Caribbean.

Starting with the CCBC December meeting, there will be a labeled box near the Members Area where you can put any used binoculars, telescopes, and North American field guides (Sibley and National Geographic only, please).  These will be routed to Betty Petersen, who directs the Birders' Exchange program. If you have any questions, email Peter Bono at pbono@prba.com or phone him at 508-375-9421. Thank you.

Birding by Computer

Can't get out to go birding?  Do it online!  Enjoy learning more about your favorite birds, ones you saw on your last trip, or find out about the habits of species you would like to see.  Members of the Cape Cod Bird Club have a special opportunity (and a discounted amount) to subscribe to “The Birds of North America Online.”  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The American Ornithologists’ Union have teamed up to provide a great website that is up-to-date and interactive. Subscribers can see images and video that vividly presents plumage details, behaviors, habitats, nests and eggs, recordings of each bird’s songs and calls, and much more.  You can find in-depth information on more than 700 species.  Check out a demo at http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna.

If you would like to subscribe, send a check for $25.00 made out to Cape Cod Bird Club along with the subscription form.  By email, you will receive a code number that will give you a one year subscription to the website.  Happy birding!

Bird Observer