Lane County enjoyed wondrous weather this summer. We had blue skies, moderate temperatures, and small amounts of rain at intervals, keeping the deciduous plants lush and green through August. Now that fall has arrived, we will see the progression of fall colors in the leaves. Fall colors in Oregon are not as famous as those of the northeast, but the stately backdrop of evergreen trees creates a contrast for the yellows and oranges of our deciduous canopy of ash, alder, oak, willow, and big-leaf maple. The understory of vine maple and poison oak adds splashes of reds.

Audubon Adventures is back with a brand new learning kit for the 2019-2020 school year! “Sharing Our World with Birds” is the newest kit offered by Audubon Adventures. Teachers have started placing their orders and can’t wait to share the new material with students! This year’s kit includes the following three topics:

Sharing Our Shores – For many kinds of birds, beaches are places to nest and raise their young or to rest and refuel on long migratory journeys.

Audubon in the Schools (AITS) has been popular and well-received in the Lane County schools since spring of 2005 when Kris Kirkeby developed this teaching program. Last school year we visited 19 schools, and gave 44 presentations to 1085 students! We want to continue bringing this special program to grade school classrooms.

If you are a teacher and want to sign up for a class visit, please schedule with Barb Pope at aitsbirds@gmail.com

If you are interested in volunteering with this program contact Maeve Sowles at audubon@laneaudubon.org 

Our core group of seven volunteers are eager to get back into classrooms, and they would love to welcome new volunteers. Training is provided, and we typically have at least two people working together during each class session. Several requests for fall-term class sessions have already been received.

Help us coordinate a twice per year cleanup of our piece of the West Eugene bike path. Lane County Audubon adopted the west end (about five miles) of West Eugene’s Fern Ridge Bike Path. The goal is to help keep Eugene’s waterways an inviting habitat for wildlife, plus a safe and clean area for recreation. The volunteer coordinator will pick the date and organize the day’s activity. We will help with recruitment and publicity!

FMI or if you’re interested in volunteering, contact Maeve Sowles at 541.343.8664 or audubon@laneaudubon.org

September is the month for Vaux’s Swift migration! These small birds will be gathering in large flocks to roost for the night at the Agate Hall chimney on the UO campus, along with other locations. We will have our “Bon Voyage to the Swifts” gathering on Friday, September 13th, this year. Please come out to join us in watching and marveling at these interesting little birds. Their migration dates begin with sightings as early as late August and continue on into October. You can look for them any evening throughout this time span. Migration depends on the wind and the weather, food availability for the insect-eating swifts, and whether drought or fires are occurring. We never can predict exactly when they will arrive or when they will all move on to the south.