by Jim Gast

Happy New Year and here’s to a wonderful 2022.

 

CoMoGives Campaign

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we raised $10,507 for the 2021 CoMoGives campaign.

January Program

Join us—via Zoom—for Columbia Audubon’s January program, Bird Nests–The Wonder of Avian Engineering  on Wednesday, January 19^th at 7:00 PM. Paige Witek, education coordinator for the Missouri River Bird Observatory, will talk about the main types of bird nests and the species that build them. Paige, who is also the state coordinator for the Missouri Young Birders Club, is an engaging and energetic presenter, so I hope you can attend the Zoom session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86965965934?pwd=TzNkNEltMnlhNXp5UlRMU0UxcTBsdz09. There will also be a short membership meeting.

Election

We’ll be holding an election in April for president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and one of the three director positions. In order to come up with a slate of candidates, I need to appoint a nominating committee. If you are interested, please contact me at jgast@socket.net.

Field Trips

We are planning on starting field trips again this year and are looking for Field Trip Leaders. Anyone who would like to lead any trips this coming year please get in touch with Eric Wood at ewood802@yahoo.com.  You don’t need experience leading trips.  Just a desire to show others your favorite place to bird.

For now Eric is asking for a commitment of just one field trip per leader. If you would like to do a trip in January, he will need a destination, date, and a short description as soon as possible. If you want to choose another month, it would be helpful to know if you want to do it early or late in the month. The leader and Eric can choose a date and make a description closer to the time of the trip.

Events

We receive several requests a year from other organizations to publicize their events to our members. In order to cut down on the number of emails you receive, we will be adding these events to our events calendar on our website.  Examples are the First Friday bird walks sponsored by Songbird Station and led by Lottie Bushmann. and the Women’s Winter Birding webinar and field trip.

Motus Wildlife Tracking System Update

The Motus Wildlife tracking System (or Motus Tower) that was donated by Columbia Audubon in memory of Brad Jacobs is up and running as of December 30^th.  The tracker is located on a tower at the Waters-Moss Memorial Wildlife Area off S Old Highway 63 (see photo).  I wonder what the first bird  tracked will be.

Amanda Heltzel and Sarah Kendrick have compiled a report detailing Motus tracking results.  If you would like a copy, email me at jgast@socket.net.