Program Meetings

Among the rarest and most imperiled birds in the world, the California Condor is the subject of our May program. Susan Haig, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a professor of wildlife ecology at OSU, will share some of her deep knowledge on Condors. 

Lane County Audubon Society Board elections will be held at the May 23 Program Meeting.

 The following incumbent candidates are running for the Board: Jim Maloney, Ron Renchler, Debbie Schlenoff, Maeve Sowles, Caryn Stoess, and Herb Wisner.

Oregon’s hiking guru takes us on a slide show tour of new trails he discovered while researching the latest (fourth) edition of his book, 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Southern Oregon & Northern California. We’ll discover hidden lakes in the Trinity Alps, relocated trails at Crater Lake, and wildflower meadows in the Siskiyous. As always, Bill spices his talk with notes on the geology, wildlife, and history.

Much of migration is driven by the seasonal availability of bugs in the northern latitudes. In this lively and informative slide show, we’ll look at numerous examples and discover how important birds are to the overall health of various ecosystems.

Oregon – what a wonderful place to learn birding!

Years ago, when I was asked to become Conservation Chair of Lane County Audubon Society, I eagerly put on that hat – a great platform to advocate for conservation, I thought. And it turned out that it was.

I also found out that when you wear that hat, people expect you to know birds. Even though I had been teaching nature photography for ten years, I had paid little attention to birds.

John F. Helmer will speak about the Steens Mountain area in Eastern Oregon, its origins, history, recreational highlights, and management. John is the Recreation Representative to the Steens Mountain Advisory Council, a group composed of land owners, environmentalists, ranchers, the Burns Paiute tribe, and others advising the BLM on creative approaches to managing 428,000 acres of public land in Harney County. Come hear about this unique and wild Oregon treasure, hot topics for the coming year, and how you can influence its future.

The Elliott State Forest is an irreplaceable Oregon treasure. This approximately 93,000-acre coastal rainforest is nestled between Coos Bay and Reedsport in Oregon’s coastal range. While it is home to many species including the imperiled Coho Salmon, the Elliott is perhaps most well known for the habitat it provides the federally threatened Marbled Murrelet and the Northern Spotted Owl.

North America’s woodpeckers play keystone roles in our continent’s forests and woodlands. In fact, nowhere else on earth are woodpeckers such important contributors to forest ecology. Join local naturalist and woodpecker specialist Steve Shunk for an exciting journey into the lives and habits of North America’s woodpeckers. He will take listeners inside the woodpecker anatomy and translate anatomical adaptation into the fascinating behaviors birders love to watch. Prepare to be entertained, educated, and inspired to become ambassadors for woodpecker and woodland conservation.

Steve Shunk started birding in the San Francisco Bay area in 1989. He moved to central Oregon’s “Woodpecker Wonderland” in 1997, where 11 woodpecker species breed annually.

Award-winning photographer Paul Bannick will present a new program featuring video, sound, stories from the field, and several dozen new images from his brand-new book Owl: A Year in the Lives of North American Owls. Paul uses intimate yet dramatic images to follow owls through the course of one year and in their distinct habitats.

We will witness the four seasons as each stage in an owl’s life is chronicled through rare images: courtship, mating, and nesting in spring; fledging and feeding of young in summer; dispersal and gaining independence in fall; and, finally, winter’s migrations and competitions for food. His program will show how owls use the unique resources available to them in each habitat to face those challenges. All 19 species found in Canada and the United States are featured in photos and narrative throughout the book, with a special focus on the Northern Pygmy-Owl, Great Gray Owl, Burrowing Owl, and Snowy Owl.

GABON, straddling the equator on the western coast of Africa, is part of the Congo Rainforest Biome. With some 80% of the nation covered in forest, Gabon was thrust into an enviable position in African conservation when in 2002 president Bongo inaugurated 13 national parks.