Connect with Nature!
Connect with Nature!
We had a good 3-day bird quest and emerged with 140 species counted!
by Linda Marzocco
Backyard Bird Shop’s Re-tail Hawk Gonzo Birdathon team spent three days dedicated to Audubon’s largest annual fundraising event and the world’s biggest birdwatching competition! “Birdathoners” ask their family and friends to pledge a donation to the Audubon Society of Portland on a fixed or “per-species” basis. Then, they go out and find as many species as possible in a period of up to 48 consecutive hours. We trekked around in the Willowa Mountains area and experienced two days of clear but cold and windy weather, and one day of exciting rainstorms (kind of slowed the count down a bit!). One fun aspect of our trip was looking for active raptor nests, since Elaine had a $4 per nest pledge ... Swainson Hawk chicklets were so cool! I think we found at least 13 nests.
So, now is the time to bring in your pledges to Backyard Bird Shop, so we can match them (up to $1000)! If you can’t get by a shop, call us!
A BIG THANKS to all of you who so generously pledged to Audubon Society via other birdathon teams (I know Laura, Michele and Mark had a good one!) as well as to our Gonzo team—Steve, Elaine, John Kristina, Scott and myself.
Thanks to all!
