Have you ever been curious about owls? Learn more about these mysterious nocturnal birds at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 11th. We will be doing a deep dive into owl photography and life history with Izzy Edwards. Follow along as Izzy shares her experiences of how she began her photographic/naturalist journey and what led her to become immersed in the world of owls. The program is preceded by a short meeting to nominate Board President and Vice President. The elections are at the May 9 meeting. Register to see online or come to the Coupeville Recreation Hall.

Isabelle (Izzy) Edwards is a 21-year-old nature photographer based in Longbranch/Alki, Washington. Izzy has been passionate about wildlife her whole life and she is especially drawn to owls. She has devoted the past 6 years to locating, observing and photo-documenting owls and has become an accomplished owl photographer. She has participated in various field conservation opportunities including the Global Owl Project's Burrowing Owl project in northern Oregon. She teaches about the life history of owls at schools and organizations throughout the

"It’s easy to feel hopeless these days. Our planet is on the edge, nearer than ever to the point of no return. Bird populations are crashing, as ecosystems around the world suffer from climate change, habitat loss and myriad forms of anthropogenic deterioration,” says Brian Sullivan, who will be describing ecosystem tools anyone can use to monitor bird populations and behavior. 

Sullivan is the digital publications lead for Information Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His team creates these apps to engage a global community of birders to generate the best most actionable science from the data and get these data into the hands of decision-makers around the world — all in a collective effort to ‘bend the curve’ for birds, biodiversity and humanity.

He urges, "Learn how you are making a difference in this battle, or how you could. Together, we can measure the heartbeat of our planet through birds.”

A video recording of the program is available here.

Did you know Washington has 12 species of woodpeckers? Jeff Kozma, Timber, Fish and Wildlife (TFW) Wildlife Biologist with the Yakama Nation reviews key plumage and vocal characteristics needed to identify all 12 of Washingtons' breeding woodpecker species. Kozma will also discuss habitat and behavioral differences between the species to further aid in identification. The program is virtual.

Kozma has been studying the ecology of White-headed Woodpeckers and other cavity-nesting birds in managed forests since 2003. He is the lead author of the Birds of the World account for the White-headed Woodpecker. He also reviews timber sales on the ceded lands of the Yakama Nation to help protect habitat important to state and federally listed wildlife.

To enjoy the program recording, see it here on YouTube.

in 2009, thousands of surf scoters washed ashore along the outer coast of Washington. In 2014, tens of thousands of Cassin’s auklets littered beaches from Haida Gwaii in British Columbia south to Newport, Oregon. In 2015, hundreds of thousands of common murres were found from California north to the Gulf of Alaska. And in 2016, thousands of rhinoceros auklets died in the Salish Sea. Is this normal? Join Dr. Julia Parrish to learn more about seabird patterns and COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team) — the largest beached bird monitoring program in the world. 

This free hybrid program is hosted by the Whidbey Audubon Society on Thursday, April 13 at the Coupeville Recreation Hall, 901 Northwest Alexander Street.

Only male birds sing, right? Wrong! In fact, this widespread notion has a lot more to do with human cultural and geographic biases than it has to do with nature. Whidbey Audubon Society presents Nathan Pieplow, who will explore the often-overlooked songs of female birds. The program is virtual via Zoom on Thursday, February 9. Pieplow shares audio recordings of pair duets of meadowlarks and blackbirds, the musical songs of female cardinals and orioles and the distinctive song of the female Canyon Wren, among others. He’ll discuss such questions such as: in which species do females actually sing more often than males? How does one know when they’re listening to a female Blue Jay? And where did this crazy idea come from, that only male birds sing?

Nathan Pieplow is the author of the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds, published in two volumes, one for Eastern and one for Western North America. An avid bird sound recordist and videographer, he is the author of the bird sound blog Earbirding.com, a board member of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, an author of the "Colorado Birding Trail" and former editor of the journal Colorado Birds. He teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The video of this program is available here.

Female birds are typically drabber and more inconspicuous than males, leading over time to an unconscious bias towards male birds in birdwatching, photography and even in general ornithological knowledge. Whidbey Audubon Society is hosting researcher Joanna Wu for its monthly program meeting on Thursday, January 14. Wu explores the history of male bird focus, female vocalizations, conservation implications of overlooking female birds and female bird identification tips.

Joanna Wu is a PhD student studying female birds in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California Los Angeles. She previously worked at National Audubon Society and is a member of the Galbatross Project, a group of birders, scientists, writers and conservationists who are passionate about spreading awareness about female birds.

The video recording is here.

What happens when a tree dies in the forest? Washington State Stewardship Biologist Ken Bevis presented a program on the value of dead wood in the forest to the Whidbey Audubon Society on Thursday, November 10, online.

Bevis will track the changes in the dead tree, from fresh dead, to hard snag, to soft snag, to down log and all of the life that follows in the decaying wood. The important ecological role of dead trees is explored, particularly by way of habitat use by the many species. In fact, almost 40 percent of forest wildlife are somehow dependent and tied to dead wood for their survival. Suggestions for management are to be included.

Click here for a recording.

Martha Jordan, well-known swan biologist, will present a program on the native swans in the Pacific Northwest, Trumpeter and Tundra. She talks about their life history, biology and some swan identification tips. She will give updates on eastern Washington swans and how Washington’s west and east sides are connected for swans, not only in Washington but along the entire flyway. Learn about the connection between swans and snow geese and their management connections. Jordan will shed some light on the problems and controversies these birds face on their wintering grounds and what is needed to insure their future. Get updated on the swan lead poisoning problem, winter habitat issues, avian influenza and more. Attenders will leave with resources to help identify swans in the field. Learn how to help Get the Lead Out of both shooting and fishing sporting activities. This is vital to the welfare of swans and all waterbirds. Click here to view the recording

A free ZOOM presentation by David B. Williams, based on his book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound, Williams will focus on the long story of the Sound, tracing human history from the earliest records more than 12,500 years ago to present. Along the way, he’ll discuss Native people, the arrival of explorers and settlers and how the various inhabitants adapted to place. He will also weave in stories of the natural world, covering often overlooked species such as Olympia oysters, rockfish, geoduck, kelp and herring, as well as salmon and orca. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose new book is a deep exploration of the stories of this beautiful waterway. He is also the author of the award-winning book, Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City and Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology. Williams is a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum. Follow him on Twitter @geologywriter.

Rescheduled from April 14, same great topic by our intrepid presenters, Steve and Martha Ellis, who have prepared this description: All bird species in our area have the ability to fly, and many of them make contact with their food from the air. Of the 232 species on Whidbey Audubon’s checklist, however, less than 10 percent feed almost exclusively on flying prey. These are the aerialists: swallows, swifts, nighthawk, flycatchers, accipiters and falcons. There’s a simple reason why seed eating species such as sparrows are so numerous: their food can’t escape. And while we rightfully marvel at a Red-tailed Hawk dropping on a vole, try catching an evasive insect traveling six inches above the ground while you’re flying 25 to 45 miles per hour. Or attempt to single out a bird in flight from a twisting flock of 500 Dunlin. The slightest miscalculation will result in serious harm.

Presenters are longtime Coupeville residents Steve and Martha Ellis. Steve is a past president of Whidbey Audubon Society and Martha is a member of the Washington Native Plant Society. Together they have been leading field trips and giving talks on a wide range of natural history topics for more than 30 years.

A video recording of the recording is available here.

Presenters Steve and Martha Ellis are ill and this program will be rescheduled.

They will explain that all bird species in our area have the ability to fly, and many of them make contact with their food from the air. Of the 232 species on Whidbey Audubon’s checklist, however, less than 10 percent feed almost exclusively on flying prey. These are the aerialists: swallows, swifts, nighthawk, flycatchers, accipiters and falcons. There’s a simple reason why seed eating species such as sparrows are so numerous: their food can’t escape. And while we rightfully marvel at a Red-tailed Hawk dropping on a vole, try catching an evasive insect traveling six inches above the ground while you’re flying 25 to 45 miles per hour. Or attempt to single out a bird in flight from a twisting flock of 500 Dunlin. The slightest miscalculation will result in serious harm. The aerialists are some of the most overlooked and underappreciated bird species. Each has its unique adaptations and habits that allow them to exploit food sources unavailable to other birds. Each also faces daunting challenges.

The Ellis’s are longtime Coupeville residents, Steve is a past president of Whidbey Audubon Society and Martha is a member of the Washington Native Plant Society. Together they have been leading field trips and giving talks on a wide range of natural history topics for more than 30 years.

This was the first hybrid meeting with 26 people in person at the Bayview Cash Store and others on Zoom. The did not project well.

Haupt’s writing is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature and wilderness in their everyday lives. She states, "We live in a time when cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: that life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature and they affect this whole in return. In a time of ecological crisis, this talk explores practices for living with meaning on our beloved, imperiled earth.” 

Haupt is an Audubon master birder. She has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont and been a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications such as Orion, Discover, Utne, LA Times Literary Supplement, Wild Earth and others. 

Books that she has written include Mozart’s Starling, The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. Her highly personal new book, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature and Spirt, invites us to live with the earth in ways that are both simple and profound. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter and a mixed backyard chicken flock.

A video recording of the program is here.

Although Washington is blessed with a rich community of breeding and wintering seabirds, relatively little is known about the ecology and conservation status of many of the species, particularly the burrow-nesters. This relative lack of knowledge extends to iconic species such as the Tufted Puffin, a species listed as Endangered by Washington State. Moving between islands, seascapes and species of the waters of Washington, Peter J. Hodum, Ph.D., shares stories about a collaborative research program focused on improving our understanding of the ecology and conservation status of species such as the Tufted Puffin, Rhinoceros Auklet, Cassin’s Auklet and Leach’s and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels. 

Hodum is a professor in the Biology Department and the Environmental Policy and Decision-Making Program at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and the Chile Program Director for Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, a conservation nonprofit organization. His research focuses primarily on the conservation and ecology of threatened seabirds and island ecosystems in Chile and Washington State. His work also has a strong focus on community-based conservation, including how communities can be more effectively and authentically involved in conservation.

A video recording of this program is available here.

Everything about Laysan Albatross is superlative: they fly unbelievable distances, live longer than any other wild bird and are iconically devoted to their chicks. They spend about 90 percent of their lives airborne and most of that time is solitary. Since all species of albatross nest on remote islands, however, it can be difficult to see them in person. The Hawaiian Island of Kaua`i is an exception to that rule and is the only place in the world where albatross nest within a goodsized community of humans. Laysans likely nested there for millions of years but disappeared when people arrived about a thousand years ago. In the 1970s a few birds, likely from Midway Atoll, began visiting Kaua`i again. In 1979 the first chick fledged from its shores in perhaps a millennium. Since then, the population has grown gradually and has given observers a chance to learn more about the brief amount of time they spend on terra firma.

Osterlund spent her career as an advanced practical nurse in the acute care hospital setting. During those years she was the principal investigator for the Comedy in Chemotherapy Study. She also performed a comedy character, Ivy Push, RN, for national audiences. She now devotes herself full time to the well-being of Hawaii’s native birds, with a special focus on the Laysan Albatross. She wrote Holy Mōlī: Albatross and Other Ancestors (Oregon State University Press, 2016, 4th printing), produced of a short documentary called Kalama‘s Journey, www.albatrosskauai.org, and a bird guide for Kaua`i.

A video recording of this program is available here.

February 11, 2021 – a photographic journey through space and time in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Dan Streiffert of the Rainier Audubon Society. Three migration routes converge in the Malheur area, making it one of the most important feeding and resting locations on the Pacific Flyway. Thousands of Northern Pintails, Snow and Ross’s Geese, American Wigeons, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers and Canvasbacks rest and refuel here on their long migrations. Hundreds of Sandhill Cranes and Trumpeter Swans add to this spectacle, which is in full swing from mid-March to mid-April.  To see the recorded program click here.