Audubon Society takes bird walk, presents award
Gayle Talbot, president of the Central Basin Audubon Society, presents Kingston Studebaker with the Backyard Habitat Award at Lakeview Terrace Elementary School Sept. 30
COURTESY PHOTO/JACKIE JEWELL
A greater yellowlegs is reflected in the water on the North Potholes Reserve Sept. 24.
Eleven bird enthusiasts turned out for the bird walk at the North Potholes Reserve Sept. 24. From left: Jeff Powell, Gayle Talbot, Stacy Lang, Shirley Vincent, Lisa Hansen, Jennifer Powell, Shiraz Vira and Paula Zanter-Stout. Not pictured: Louis Logan, Margaret Heming and Richard Teals.
Kingston Studebaker shows off his Backyard Habitat Award Sept. 30.
MOSES LAKE — September 2022 was a very active month for the Central Basin Audubon Society. CBAS held successful events in two of their newest programs, bird walks and backyard habitats.
On Sept. 24, CBAS Field Trip Coordinator Margaret Heming led a group of interested participants in the first bird walk. Heming chose North Potholes Reserve for this initial hike. The weather was perfect and spirits high as 11 people gathered with binoculars and cameras at the ready.
Before beginning the birding event, Heming had everyone introduce themselves; and tell what got them interested in birds. It was a diverse group since also invited were Columbia Basin School retirees. Attendees included six retired teachers and three bird photographers, Lisa Hansen, Paula Zanter-Stout and Heming, all of whom actively post amazing bird photos on the Central Basin Audubon Society Facebook page. Others attending this event were Shirley Vincent, Louis Logan, Jeff and Jennifer Powell, Richard Teals, Shiraz Vira, Stacy Lang and Gayle Talbot.
Thanks to the birders in the group, bird species identified included meadowlarks, double-crested cormorants, great blue herons, American pelicans, greater yellowlegs, Canada geese, ring-billed gulls, northern flickers, yellow-rumped warblers, great egrets, and sandhill cranes. All agreed that this was a great start.
The last day of September also proved to be a beautiful day and Talbot arranged a Backyard Habitat Award presentation outdoors at Lakeview Terrace Elementary School, just before dismissal.
A large group of fourth- and fifth-graders was seated in a wide arc to witness the announcement of the CBAS Habitat Hero for 2022. Talbot reminded the group of the previous challenge to the fourth-graders last spring. The challenge was to create a backyard habitat, utilizing materials from a pollinator bee garden, another CBAS project using a native seed packet and a bee garden brochure created by Bree Edwards, along with other informative resources, such as an issue of an Audubon Adventures magazine, entitled “At Home in a Habitat.”
The suspense kept the crowd listening intently, but when one of the fifth-graders was finally pronounced the Habitat Hero, everyone applauded loudly for Kingston Studebaker from Jackie Jewell’s class. Kingston was awarded a CBAS Habitat Hero Medallion and he celebrated by throwing native showy milkweed seeds into the air with Talbot, while other students tried catching the puffy, flying seeds. The fourth-graders are eager for their backyard habitat presentation in the spring, while some fifth-graders want to continue on with the challenge in hopes of earning an Audubon Habitat Hero trophy.
For more information on Central Basin Audubon, please see Central Basin Audubon Society on Facebook and for membership www.CentralBasinAudubonSociety.com.
