Upcoming event: Christmas Bird Count!

UPDATE: Change in date to Sunday, December 18

Gray-crowned Rosy-finches. Photo (c) Shawn Billerman.

We are seeking volunteers to take part in the 117th annual Christmas Bird Count!

The Laramie Audubon Society will again take part in a 100-year-old Christmas tradition, the annual Christmas Bird Count. Volunteers are welcome to join in the count with the LAS chapter as it conducts the Albany County Christmas Bird Count on Sunday, December 18. This will be the 39th count of the Albany County circle. Volunteers are needed to help count every bird present in the 15-mile diameter circle around Laramie on the day of the count. Novices are welcome, and will be paired with more experienced bird watchers.

Volunteers can call ahead (307-286-1972) or meet at Coal Creek Coffee (110 E. Grand) at 7:30 am on the day of the count to get data forms and team assignments. Some teams walk, while others drive through the territory. Volunteers will reconvene at The Grounds Internet and Coffee Lounge (171 N. 3rd St.) at 12:00 pm to drop off morning reports and regroup for those continuing in the afternoon.

Volunteers should wear warm, layered clothing and boots, and bring water, snacks and binoculars if you have them. Feeder watchers are also welcome. Volunteers are invited to a chili supper where results will be compiled beginning at 4 pm the home of Shay Howlin. Potluck items welcome, but not required. Please contact Shay Howlin if you would like to be assigned a route early, would like forms for feeder watching, or have any questions (307-286-1972; wolfhowlin@gmail.com).

Upcoming talk: Science Cafe with the Prather Lab

Join the Laramie Audubon Society and the Biodiversity Institute next week for a Science Café featuring work by Dr. Jonathan Prather and his lab. Prather studies the neurobiology of communication in birds.

A summary of the lab's recent work: "We use our words to communicate with each other every day, and we rely on good decision making to keep us healthy and out of trouble. In both speech and decision making, specialized circuits in the brain enable us to learn from experience. When we take a close look at songbirds, we find that they do they same thing. Birds learn their songs just like we learn the sounds we use in speech, and female birds evaluate the quality of male birds’ songs in order to select their mates. How does the brain do that, and how can we use that insight to understand more about ourselves?"

Dr. Jonathan Prather

Wednesday, November 30
UW Berry Center Auditorium
10th Street and Lewis Street
Laramie, Wyoming
Free parking after 5 pm

6:30 pm Refreshments and Bird Chat
7:00 pm Program begins

The Science Café will feature three talks:

Dr. Jonathan Prather  - How the brain learns to communicate and make good decisions: What studying songbirds can teach us about human behavior

Karagh Murphy - What songbirds can teach us about human behavior

Jeff Dunning - Shedding light on the female songbird brain

We will also hold our annual board member elections at this meeting. Members who cannot attend this meeting will be able to vote via an online survey, coming soon to your email.

Upcoming trip: Laramie Valley

Pronghorn. Photo (c) Shawn Billerman.

This Saturday, 12 November, Tim Banks will lead us on a tour of the Laramie Valley for whatever birds we can find. Waterfowl have been disappointingly absent so far this fall, but raptor diversity is usually good in the valley! Join us for the adventure--never know what we might find.

We will meet at 8 am at Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse to carpool. Bring binoculars, a scope if you have one, and field guides. Dress for the weather and bring water and snacks. I plan to be back in Laramie by 11:45 am; if you can only join us for part of the time, be prepared to drive your own vehicle or coordinate with carpool buddies.

Birders of all levels are welcome! Our trips are free and open to the public.

Rough-legged Hawk. Photo (c) Shawn Billerman.

Upcoming talk: Rachel Fanelli and Joanna Harter

Please join us this coming Wednesday, October 26 for two talks by our most recent Small Grants recipients. Both Rachel and Joanna received LAS funds this last spring/summer to help with their research and outreach efforts.

As usual, we will meet in the Berry Center auditorium. Parking adjacent to the building is free after 5 pm. Bird chat and refreshments begin at 6:30 pm, and the talks will begin at 7:00 pm.

Rachel Fanelli will give a talk entitled: "Community Outreach with the University of Wyoming Raccoon Project." The University of Wyoming Raccoon Project has taken an active role in the Laramie community to generate excitement around this local wildlife species. Rachel will discuss their outreach efforts and how these efforts have proven fundamental for their research.

Joanna Harter will give a talk entitled: "How does bird diversity in the Prairie Potholes Region respond to wetland persistence?" The Prairie Potholes Region supports a high diversity of birds and diverse wetland habitats, and Joanna is examining the effects of wetland persistence on bird diversity. She will introduce us to this strange and beautiful landscape, and share some of the details of her study with us during her talk.

Upcoming trip: Plains Lakes

Libby Megna will lead a trip to the Plains Lakes this Saturday, 15 October. Hopefully we will find a variety of dabbling and diving ducks between Blake's Pond, Twin Buttes, and Lake Hattie. Plus, raptor diversity out on the plains is almost always excellent.

We will meet at 8 am at Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse to carpool. Bring binoculars, a scope if you have one, and field guides. Dress for the weather and bring water and snacks. I plan to be back in Laramie by 11:45 am; if you can only join us for part of the time, be prepared to drive your own vehicle or coordinate with carpool buddies.

Birders of all levels are welcome! Our trips are free and open to the public.

Our intrepid president, Tim Banks, scoping Lake Hattie on the Plains Lakes trip 18 Oct 2014. Photo by Libby Megna.

Trip report: Laramie hotspots

Doug Eddy led a great trip to several birding hotspots around Laramie this past Saturday, September 24. Despite a light accumulation of snow overnight and chilly morning temperatures, we had a great crowd!

Doug started us off at a birding spot new to me, City Springs on the east side of town adjacent to the plains. Highlights included an Empidonax species, either Dusky or Hammond's, and nice looks at a Green-tailed Towhee and White-crowned Sparrows. See our complete checklist here.

Next stop was Greenhill Cemetery, where a flock of a couple hundred blackbirds dominated the birdlife. These were a mix of Brewer's Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and Red-winged Blackbirds. We found Orange-crowned, Wilson's, Townsend's, and Yellow-rumped warblers, and had a great look at a Cooper's Hawk. Our full checklist is here.

At LaBonte Park, there were quite a few waterfowl on the lake but the highlight was a Merlin. Full checklist is here. Doug finished up the hotspots tour with a stop at the Greenbelt; the birds weren't as plentiful at that location, but we were treated to a great look at a Belted Kingfisher.

Thanks all for joining us! We hope you come again. If anyone who was present would like to have the eBird checklists shared with them, just shoot me an email.

Upcoming talk: Nate Huck

On Wednesday, September 28, Nate Huck will give a talk entitled Duck diets: what they eat and why it matters. As usual, we will meet in the Berry Center; bird chat with refreshments will start at 6:30 pm, and the talk will begin at 7:00 pm.

Nate is the Migratory Game Bird Biologist for Wyoming Game and Fish. He’ll be talking about research from his graduate work at Texas A&M, studying diet composition of Northern Pintails along the Texas coast. He’ll discuss the importance of understanding winter foraging habits for key waterfowl species, and share with us some cool insights from his research. Please join us for his talk!

Northern Pintails. Photo by JM Garg, Wikimedia.

Upcoming trip: Laramie Hotspots

LAS birds Optimist Park, Sep 2015.

Doug Eddy will lead us on a journey through the best birding spots within Laramie this Saturday, 24 September. We'll look for migrating songbirds, especially warblers and sparrows.

We will meet at 8 am at Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse to carpool. Bring binoculars and field guides, dress for the weather, and bring water and snacks.

Doug plans to visit four spots in town--so if you can't meet up at 8 am we hope you will join us for part of the time! We'll spend about 1 hour at each stop; click on the links below for details and a map of the location.

City Springs Oasis
Greenhill Cemetery
Labonte Park
Greenbelt

After the birding is done, we will spend some time cleaning up the section of the Greenbelt that Laramie Audubon recently adopted. We'd really appreciate it if you stuck around after birding pick up trash!

Birders of all levels are welcome! This is a particularly good trip for beginning birders. Our trips are free and open to the public.

Greenbelt, September 2015. Photo by Libby Megna.

Trip report: Hutton Lake NWR

Yesterday, Saturday 17 September, Tim Banks and Vicki Henry led a great trip to Hutton Lake NWR. We had nice looks at Greater Yellowlegs, Ferruginous Hawks, and a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Wilson's Warblers, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers working through the greasewood. The vast majority of the waterfowl were American Coots and Eared Grebes.

You can view our full checklist here.

In addition to birding, we cleaned out and performed maintenance on the Tree Swallow nest boxes at the refuge. This past summer almost all of the boxes hosted Tree Swallows, and 13 nests apparently fledged young.

Vicki Henry and Art Denison checking a nest box. Photo by Libby Megna.

Upcoming trip: Hutton Lake NWR, 13 September

This Saturday, 17 September, Vicki Henry and Tim Banks will lead us to Hutton Lake NWR for birding and nest box maintenance! This time of year the refuge hosts migrating waterfowl, coots, grebes, and hopefully some lingering shorebirds. If you can stay for a bit after birding, we will also clean out and perform maintenance on the tree swallow nest boxes we have on the refuge. Feel free to join us for either or both activities.

Meet at Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse at 8 am. We should be back to Laramie by noon or so, but of course you can leave early if you drive your own vehicle or arrange with carpool buddies. Bring binoculars, a spotting scope if you have one, snacks/drinks and dress for the weather.

Our trips are free and open to the public. This trip is great for birders of all skill levels.

See you there!

Rush Lake, September 2015. Photo by Libby Megna.

Trip Report: Hereford Ranch

Eight Auduboners met extra early to bird the Wyoming Hereford Ranch in Cheyenne this past Saturday, 10 September 2016. Despite the overnight below-freezing temps in Laramie, we lucked into a very nice day at Hereford.

Our hopes for rare fall migrants were dashed, but we did get nice looks at expected species. Although Wilson's Warblers dominated all of the riparian areas at the Ranch, we did pick out one Yellow Warbler and one Townsend's Warbler. We also found a Brown Thrasher, Say's Phoebes, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and Warbling Vireos. Our full trip list is here.

Laramie Audubon birds Hereford Ranch. Photo by Libby Megna.

Upcoming trip: Hereford Ranch, 10 September

Eastern Screech-Owl. Photo by Libby Megna

We will head out to Hereford Ranch in Cheyenne this Saturday, 10 September, for our first field trip of the season. This is a great place to see eastern species that are migrating through the region, in addition to more expected regional migrants. The ranch has riparian habitats that attract a lot of migrants during spring and fall.

Meet at 7:00 am (earlier than usual) at Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse to carpool and caffeinate to Cheyenne. We will leave no later than 7:15. Be sure to gas up ahead of time--it will take about 50 minutes to get to the ranch. We should get back to Laramie between noon and 1 pm; of course, you can leave anytime you like if you drive your own vehicle.

Bring binoculars, snacks, water, and layer your clothes for weather. This field trip is open to the public and birders of all levels are welcome. Hope to see you this weekend!

Fall birding at Hereford, 13 September 2014. Photo by Libby Megna.