Dear Reader,
We hope you enjoyed our Migratory Bird Day festival and the other activities around Lincoln and Tillamook counties! Be sure to check out our festival report! This month is already looking to be crazy-busy - our Beginning Birding class is underway at Oregon Coast Community College, we’re busy preparing for our June annual meeting and potluck (more below), farmer’s markets will be happening, various public meetings are scheduled, our newsletter was just printed (coming your way soon!), and we’re working with the City on new office space. Whew!
JUNE EVENTS
9th (Friday): Thanks to Lincoln City Parks and Recreation, we have two ASLC bird walks again this month! Join us as we visit The Knoll Open Space, 9am - 11am. More info…
10th (Saturday): Join us on a trek to Ona Beach and Beavercreek SRA. We’ll meet at the Ona Beach parking lot at 9am. More info…
17th (Wednesday): Yaquina Birders & Naturalists’ monthly meeting will feature “The Reverse Bucket List: How I Learned to Love Alligator Farms” presented by Ram Papish, 6:30pm at the OSU Extension Lincoln County.
22nd (Thursday): Annual Meeting and Potluck: Our annual potluck will be June 22rd at the Lincoln City Cultural Center. Potluck will be at 5pm followed by a brief business meeting and Year-in-Review presentation. We’ll provide plates, utensils, etc. and you’ll provide the food and beverages. I'll be sending out an email in advance of the potluck with more details!
Week of June 26th (exact dates TBD): We encourage you to attend one of the town halls to be held the week of June 26 in Newport to learn more about the draft revised Yaquina Bay Estuary Management Plan, which is due to be released this month. We’ll be sharing talking points on what we like and think needs to be added to the Plan to better care for the estuarine habitats and species dependent upon them. More info…
2023 ELECTIONS
We are looking for new Board members! If you love what we are accomplishing and want to become more involved, we would love to have you on our Board of Directors or serve as a volunteer for one of our programs. We will be taking nominations from the floor at our meeting and you are welcome to self-nominate!
THE OSPREY OF LINCOLN CITY
Our Osprey Awareness Initiative is well underway - we have a dozen volunteers who are monitoring the 14 Lincoln City nests. We have a wonderful new interactive map of the nests, and a beautiful brochure with a handy guide to the Lincoln City nests. More info…
SWIFTY REPORT
It has been almost two months since the swallows and other birds started checking out the 197 boxes that we are monitoring. We want to share our success at this stage. There have been at least 111 nesting attempts, over 200 eggs counted, 25 young, and 6 fledges. The majority of these are Tree and Violet-green Swallows, though some are Chickadees, Wood Ducks and Mergansers. Purple Martins (PUMAs) arrive much later than the swallows and are now just starting to initiate nesting activity. We are optimistic that two of our three sites (Hatfield Estuary Trail and the Alsea Marina) will have nesting pairs. The third set of PUMA boxes, installed at Beaver Creek State Park, got taken over by tree swallows. More info...
ON THE CONSERVATION FRONT
We want to express our sincere thanks to all of you who testified this morning in person or online in support of a strong Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for state forests in western Oregon, in particular Alternative 3. We owe Joe a special thank-you for leading the charge and working tirelessly with the Forest Coalition to build support for a strong HCP. Joe reports that our strong presence in the public testimony round this morning was noted and appreciated by the bigger conservation groups in the coalition.
More than 60 people testified at the BoF meeting this morning. Supporters of a strong HCP outnumbered opponents two to one. The second phase of public testimony will occur this afternoon. In his opening comments, Chair Kelly mentioned that a vote on the HCP likely will not take place until this November. He addressed some of the hyperbole and misrepresentations directed at the HCP. Opponents to an HCP say it will result in a 34% decrease in areas available for logging. In fact, adoption of an HCP would result in a mere 5% change. More info...
That’s the news for this month - let's keep working together for birds and nature!
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dawn villaescusa, President
Audubon Society of Lincoln City