georgia aUDUBON mONTHLY mEETINGS
Join us for our free monthly meetings every 4th Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 5:30 PM at Manuel's Tavern located at 602 N. Highland Ave., NE., Atlanta, GA 30307. Our monthly meetings are free and open to the public. Please join us! Free parking is readily available to the south of the building. Food and drinks are available for purchase.
In-person Georgia Audubon Monthly Meetings are currently on hold due to COVID-19. We are offering many of these programs as webinars instead. Please check out our Digital Resources page to see recordings of past webinars and to learn about upcoming Virtual events. We look forward to resuming in-person events when it is safe to do so!
Rebecca Garlinger from White Oak Conservation will update us on her Grasshopper Sparrow Research at the October Monthly Meeting.
October Monthly Meeting (via webinar)
Sunday, October 25, at 3:30 PM
Saving a Songbird: Conserving Florida’s Endangered Grasshopper Sparrow
Presenter: Rebecca Garlinger, White Oak Conservation
Recent research in avian conservation has shown staggering evidence of population declines across virtually all biomes in North America. From the shorelines to the arctic tundra, even common bird species are experiencing declines, creating an urgent need for avian conservation action. White Oak Conservation in northeastern Florida is one organization dedicated to combating this loss of native bird species. Currently, one of their programs focuses its attention on a critically endangered Florida endemic, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. This grassland songbird has declined to the brink of extinction, with an approximated 30 known breeding pairs left in their native habitat in south-central Florida as of 2019. In partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and additional conservation organizations, White Oak has worked to develop and establish an ex situ breeding population of these endangered birds at their facility. Their efforts have resulted in the first ever releases of Florida Grasshopper Sparrows from managed care to the birds’ native Florida prairieland in spring 2019. White Oak and its field partners continue to work toward a sustainable, stable population for the critical Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, producing, releasing, and tracking birds in the 2020 season. Please join White Oak’s grasshopper sparrow specialist Rebecca Garlinger as she discusses their organization’s continuing efforts to save Florida’s endangered Grasshopper Sparrow.
About the presenter: Rebecca Garlinger is the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Program Specialist at White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida. Originally from central Pennsylvania, she grew up with a love for sports, nature, and the outdoors. She always knew she wanted to work with animals, but originally saw herself in the veterinary field, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Behavior from Dickinson College in 2015. During college, she began working at veterinary clinics and also interned as an animal keeper at a small facility in Indiana. Her brief exposure to conservation as a keeper led her to shift gears a bit, enrolling in graduate school to earn an M.S. in biology/wildlife ecology at Villanova University in 2016. Her graduate work focused primarily on using tracking technology to understand flock behavior in native songbird populations at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania. During graduate school, she worked at an avian rehabilitation facility as well as a number of local bird banding stations. She also spent some time volunteering at numerous bird banding stations in Europe and South America. While working as a bander, she gained an immense appreciation for the diversity of bird species and knew she wanted to continue to work with avian populations. A desire to get more involved in applied conservation efforts led her to White Oak, where she is now a part of an amazing and growing conservation organization!
Sunday, October 25, at 3:30 PM
Saving a Songbird: Conserving Florida’s Endangered Grasshopper Sparrow
Presenter: Rebecca Garlinger, White Oak Conservation
Recent research in avian conservation has shown staggering evidence of population declines across virtually all biomes in North America. From the shorelines to the arctic tundra, even common bird species are experiencing declines, creating an urgent need for avian conservation action. White Oak Conservation in northeastern Florida is one organization dedicated to combating this loss of native bird species. Currently, one of their programs focuses its attention on a critically endangered Florida endemic, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. This grassland songbird has declined to the brink of extinction, with an approximated 30 known breeding pairs left in their native habitat in south-central Florida as of 2019. In partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and additional conservation organizations, White Oak has worked to develop and establish an ex situ breeding population of these endangered birds at their facility. Their efforts have resulted in the first ever releases of Florida Grasshopper Sparrows from managed care to the birds’ native Florida prairieland in spring 2019. White Oak and its field partners continue to work toward a sustainable, stable population for the critical Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, producing, releasing, and tracking birds in the 2020 season. Please join White Oak’s grasshopper sparrow specialist Rebecca Garlinger as she discusses their organization’s continuing efforts to save Florida’s endangered Grasshopper Sparrow.
About the presenter: Rebecca Garlinger is the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Program Specialist at White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida. Originally from central Pennsylvania, she grew up with a love for sports, nature, and the outdoors. She always knew she wanted to work with animals, but originally saw herself in the veterinary field, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Behavior from Dickinson College in 2015. During college, she began working at veterinary clinics and also interned as an animal keeper at a small facility in Indiana. Her brief exposure to conservation as a keeper led her to shift gears a bit, enrolling in graduate school to earn an M.S. in biology/wildlife ecology at Villanova University in 2016. Her graduate work focused primarily on using tracking technology to understand flock behavior in native songbird populations at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania. During graduate school, she worked at an avian rehabilitation facility as well as a number of local bird banding stations. She also spent some time volunteering at numerous bird banding stations in Europe and South America. While working as a bander, she gained an immense appreciation for the diversity of bird species and knew she wanted to continue to work with avian populations. A desire to get more involved in applied conservation efforts led her to White Oak, where she is now a part of an amazing and growing conservation organization!
Bird walk participants scanning Lake Clara Meer on a Piedmont Park Bird Walk led by Jason Ward. Photo by Dottie Head.
November Monthly Meeting (Special Date to Avoid Thanksgiving!)
Webinar: Special Birds & Beers Presentation- Piedmont Park: A Place for People and Wildlife
Sunday, November 8, at 3:30 PM
FREE
Join Georgia Audubon Director of Conservation Adam Betuel for a special Birds and Beers webinar on Piedmont Park. Atlanta’s biggest urban park, Piedmont Park covers more than 200 acres in the heart of Atlanta and provides habitat for many resident and migratory birds. Adam will virtually “sit down” with the following panel of experts to highlight some of the park’s most birdy features and discuss the rewards and challenges of managing this urban oasis for people and wildlife.
Panelists:
Webinar: Special Birds & Beers Presentation- Piedmont Park: A Place for People and Wildlife
Sunday, November 8, at 3:30 PM
FREE
Join Georgia Audubon Director of Conservation Adam Betuel for a special Birds and Beers webinar on Piedmont Park. Atlanta’s biggest urban park, Piedmont Park covers more than 200 acres in the heart of Atlanta and provides habitat for many resident and migratory birds. Adam will virtually “sit down” with the following panel of experts to highlight some of the park’s most birdy features and discuss the rewards and challenges of managing this urban oasis for people and wildlife.
Panelists:
- Louise Harris, director of programs, Piedmont Park Conservancy
- Gabe Andrle, habitat conservation program coordinator, Georgia Audubon
- Jason Ward, host of the Birds of North America web series and Piedmont Park's most famous birder
Webinar: Georgia Audubon Monthly Meeting
Sunday, January 24, at 3:30 PM
Audubon’s American History with Gregory Nobles
Registration: FREE
If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, the following prices apply:
Book YOU will pick up at Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur - $37.75
Book Shipped to your home - $41.75
Eagle Eye Book Shop will donate a portion of proceeds from book sales to Georgia Audubon
In addition to being a remarkable painter of birds, John James Audubon was a lively teller of tales. In Ornithological Biography, his five-volume, 3000 page companion to The Birds of America, Audubon interspersed dozens of stories about the American people, ranging from their environmental habits to their social behaviors to their race relations. While some of these stories are more true than others, together they give us a fascinating view of the ways Audubon understood his adopted country. They also invite us to look at Audubon himself as a writer of both myth and history. In this session, we will explore several of Audubon’s stories to discuss—and no doubt debate—how we understand his portrayal of the past from our own perspective of the present.
Gregory Nobles is Professor Emeritus of History at Georgia Tech and the author of John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). He divides his time between Atlanta, where he is a member of Georgia Audubon, and Northport MI, where he is a member of Michigan Audubon.
Sunday, January 24, at 3:30 PM
Audubon’s American History with Gregory Nobles
Registration: FREE
If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, the following prices apply:
Book YOU will pick up at Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur - $37.75
Book Shipped to your home - $41.75
Eagle Eye Book Shop will donate a portion of proceeds from book sales to Georgia Audubon
In addition to being a remarkable painter of birds, John James Audubon was a lively teller of tales. In Ornithological Biography, his five-volume, 3000 page companion to The Birds of America, Audubon interspersed dozens of stories about the American people, ranging from their environmental habits to their social behaviors to their race relations. While some of these stories are more true than others, together they give us a fascinating view of the ways Audubon understood his adopted country. They also invite us to look at Audubon himself as a writer of both myth and history. In this session, we will explore several of Audubon’s stories to discuss—and no doubt debate—how we understand his portrayal of the past from our own perspective of the present.
Gregory Nobles is Professor Emeritus of History at Georgia Tech and the author of John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). He divides his time between Atlanta, where he is a member of Georgia Audubon, and Northport MI, where he is a member of Michigan Audubon.
