News and Notes from the President
by Jim Gast, President
March Program moves to March 23rd.
We have a treat in store for Columbia Audubon members in March. Instead of our regular March 16th membership meeting, CAS is co-hosting a Warbler Identification Webinar, via Zoom, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23rd . The webinar will be presented by Dr. Sara Morris, who teaches field ornithology at Audubon’s Hog Island, ME, Camp in the summer. She is a graduate of Cornell University and professor of biology at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Use this link to register for the webinar now: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MWLwCGI4TSO9NNhvKeeqiQ. For more information about the webinar and Dr. Morris, see the article in this month’s “Chat” or visit the CAS calendar or the registration site. Thanks to our co-sponsors, the Missouri Birding Society and the Missouri River Bird Observatory, for helping to make this event possible.
If you missed Randal and Denise Clark’s talk in February, you can view it at: https://youtu.be/YRTQr059YDk .
How To Get Involved in Columbia Audubon
There are several ways you can become involved in Columbia Audubon:
1) Attend a program or picnic. The March program is a webinar on warblers, the April program will be at Twin Lakes and the May event will be a picnic at Bonnie View.
2) Go on a CAS field trip or better yet, lead a CAS field trip. We need field trip leaders for March, April and May. You don’t need to be an experienced birder to go on or lead a field trip. Contact Field trip co-coordinator Eric Wood at ewood802@yahoo.com for more information.
3) Volunteer to work at one of our nature areas. We’re always looking for volunteers to remove invasive species, maintain trails, plant, creat firelines and/or help out with Band with Nature in the fall. Contact Nature Areas Chair Bill Mees at jandbmees@mchsi.com to sign up.
4) Become the CoMoGives coordinator. The CoMoGives campaign is our major fundraiser and we need someone to take on the task of coordinating the campaign. If you are interested, please contact me at jgast@socket.net.
5) Run for office. We need candidates for office so consider nominating yourself or someone else (with permission). Contact Nominating Committee chair Lori Turner at lturner@booneelectric.com.
I’ve been asked by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to announce that Bill Clark is teaching a four week class on backyard birding on Tuesdays beginning April 12th. For more information go to
Good Luck to Paige Witek and Sarah Kendrick as they start new careers. Paige is going back to Wisconsin and Sarah is going to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I really enjoyed the programs that they presented to Columbia Audubon. Speaking of Sarah, she has an excellent article in the March 2022 Missouri Conservationist on declining bird populations: https://mdc.mo.gov/search?search_api_fulltext=Missouri+Conservationist+march+2022. There is also a nice profile of Mike Szydlowski in the same issue.