No one does more for birds in the Bitterroot Valley than the Bitterroot Audubon Society, the local chapter of the National Audubon Society. They are more than a group of bird watchers. Of course, there is a lot of just plain watching that goes on, but they are really bird lovers, and it involves a lot of doing, as well.
Audubon Society members are famous for not only watching birds, but getting to know them. And not just by name, but by their habits, and by the habitats they occupy as well, and the role they play in a complex environment.
Sharing this kind of experience and knowledge, with the community, is a big part of Bitterroot Audubon’s mission. One way they further this goal, according to Betsy Ballard, chair of the Education Committee, is by sponsoring the Audubon Adventures program for teachers and students. The program offers printed and online materials in a variety formats and subjects suitable for classroom groups, libraries, after school clubs, science and nature camps, home schoolers, as well as families with students in grades 3 to 5. There are over 38 different topics ranging from alligators and bees to whales and water birds, from forests and prairies to seashores and urban habitats.
According to Ballard, nine teachers in the valley in seven schools took advantage of the program. More information about Audubon Adventures may be found online at www.audubonadventures.org. She said they hoped to expand the program this coming year and suggested valley teachers try to sign up by December 1, 2018.
Bitterroot Audubon also sets up an educational booth annually at the Bitterroot Youth Conservation and Education Expo and supports the associated scholarship program to summer camps. This year they had a bird’s nest display, a display about the hazards of baling twine for birds, an exhibit on bird friendly plants, and, of course the bird identification challenge.
As part of its educational efforts, the BAS reaches beyond the grade school and high school students and offers its own Byron Weber Memorial Scholarship to a qualifying college or university student. Byron Weber, the “Bug Guy” on Montana Public Radio, passed away in 2010 having left behind an extensive documentation of his observations of weather, insects, plants, birds and mammals at Maclay Ranch in the Bitterroot Valley, from 1979-1985, that are on file at the University of Montana, Mansfield Library, Archives and Special Collections.
Applicants must be currently attending a Montana College or University, enrolled in a four-year program majoring in the Natural Resource field, and be at least a sophomore in good standing and have financial need. The scholarship award is for $1,000 per semester. Applications can be submitted at www.bitterrootaudubon.org or mailed to BAS, P.O. Box 326, Hamilton MT 59840 postmarked no later than December 1, 2018 for the Spring Semester Award.
Aside from all this, Bitterroot Audubon also offers guided bird walks, community workshops on how to identify birds by ear, even some specialty filed trips focusing on something like how to identify the many different species of sparrows.
It should be also be noted that Audubon members often show up at public meetings to give municipal, county, state, and federal government authorities their best information and recommendations when it comes to things that may affect the birds.
In terms of conservation the local chapter contributes heavily to both the Bitterroot Land Trust and the Bitterroot Water Forum.
One way the BAS tries to fund all these efforts, according to BAS President Becky Peters, is its annual calendar sales. The Birds of the Bitterroot Valley 2019 Calendar is already on the stands. On the cover is an incredible photograph of a pair of Sandhill Cranes. One bows before the other as they engage in an “elaborate courtship dance which is truly one of nature’s marvels.”
The quality of the calendar and the photographs cannot be understated. BAS President Becky Peters said that over 400 submittals were received and reviewed in the process of putting this calendar together. The requirements are that both the photographer and the bird must be from the Bitterroot. Submissions are judged by a five-person committee of board members.
In harmony with its educational orientation, one of the main criteria in judging the photos is to show the bird at its “most identifiable moment,” said Peters. That way even children can use the calendar as a way to begin identifying the birds. The calendar also includes a space for filling in the birds seen in that month and can be saved as a record from year to year.
Aside from the featured bird of the month by a local photographer on the top of the calendar page, at the bottom a small photograph of a bird commonly seen during that month and a drawing of that bird by a 4th or 5th grade student at Victor High School are displayed.
The 2019 calendars can be purchased at Valley Drug and Variety and Ace Hardware in Stevensville; Ace Hardware in Florence; Hamilton Gifts, Bitterroot Drug, Art Focus, Robbins Hallmark, Wild About Pets, and Artisans on 2nd Street in Hamilton; Noah’s Ark in Victor; and at the Corvallis Merc.