Little Brown Jobs: Online Workshop with Larry Meade, October 22nd

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Fox Sparrow photo by David Boltz/Audubon Photography Awards

Thursday, October 22, 2020
7 – 8:30 pm
Fee: $15
Register here

Have you been wondering about all those “little brown jobs” in your backyard? Could you use a little help distinguishing between the House Finches and the Pine Siskins? Song Sparrows and Savannah Sparrows? This Audubon Society of Northern Virginia workshop will concentrate on identification skills for some of the finches, sparrows, and other similar birds in our region, including both residents and migrants, just in time for the arrival of our cold weather birds.

Instructor: Larry Meade, a member of the ASNV Education Committee, is president of the Northern Virginia Bird Club and a former board member of the Virginia Society of Ornithology. He has served as a sector leader for a number of years for several local Christmas Bird Counts and is an avid nature photographer.

NVSWCD Green Breakfast, Youth Conservation Leaders, October 10th

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Saturday, October 10, 2020
9 — 10:30 am

Email [email protected] for login information.

Young Conservation Leaders
Over the past year, several Fairfax County high school students have worked with the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District as part of the Youth Conservation Leadership Institute to develop summer independent research projects. Join us from the comfort of your home and be prepared to be inspired as you learn about their environmental conservation and stewardship projects:
The Danger of Microplastics – Carolyn Rohr
Water Quality in Accotink Creek – Nimesh Rudra
The Efficacy of Different Erosion Prevention Methods – Cynthia Ma
Effect of Microhabitats on Insect Biodiversity in Northern Virginia – Nimesh Rudra
Water Quality and Buffered Stream Banks: What’s the Connection -Becca Jeffries

What is the Youth Conservation Leadership Institute?
The Youth Conservation Leadership Institute (YCLI) is a Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts recognition program for students in 9th- 12th grade that focuses on volunteer service and environmental stewardship. YCLI began as an expansion of Youth Conservation Camp in an effort to keep students engaged in the environmental topics introduced at camp. YCLI offers high school students interested in environmental conservation and stewardship an opportunity to build leadership skills and connect with local mentors involved with environmental issues.

Volunteers as Chesapeake Stewards (VoiCes) virtual course, October 6-November 17th

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Tuesday Evenings*
October 6–November 17, 2020
7–8:30 pm
Zoom links will be sent ahead of each class
*except Tuesday, November 3

Register here.

Join Chesapeake Bay Foundation and advocates from across Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania for their first ever virtual Volunteers as Chesapeake Stewards (VoiCes) course.

In the weekly class, you’ll hear from speakers about topics ranging from the challenges facing Bay restoration to steps you can take in your own community to improve the health of your local waterways.

The course will include 1–2 hours of pre-recorded materials to watch at your leisure each week before coming together as a class over Zoom for a brief overview and Q&A with speakers. Some classes will be watershed-wide, while others will be region specific.

Free Event: An Afternoon with Dr. J. Drew Lanham, October 2nd

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Friday, October 2, 2020
1-30 — 2:30 pm
Register here

Virginia Conservation Network is proud to invite you to An Afternoon with Dr. J. Drew Lanham. The virtual event is FREE to the public and space is limited. 

A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, J. Drew Lanham is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. He is a birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist who has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, he and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina, a soaring hawk’s downhill glide from the southern Appalachian escarpment that the Cherokee once called the Blue Wall.

Fascinating Facts about Bears (Virtual), October 15th

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Photo (c) Barbara J. Saffir

Thursday, October 15,2020
7 pm
Register and learn more.

Join Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s Jenny Swiggart as she discusses the many fascinating and interesting facts about bears native to the area. Registration required. Participants will receive a link via email to this live-streamed program.

Author Event: The Bird Way with Jennifer Ackerman, webinar October 15th

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Thursday, October 15, 2020
7 – 8:30 pm
Virtual!
Fee: $10 ASNV members, $15 non-members
Register for the lecture here.

Join Audubon Society of Northern Virginia as they welcome author Jennifer Ackerman to discuss the much anticipated follow up to The Genius of Birds. NPR’s “SCIENCE FRIDAY” picks The Bird Way as one of “The Best Summer Science Books of 2020”:

Ackerman brings scientific research alive with personal observations of colorful and fascinating birds, from the kea parrot to the raven to the brush turkey, among others. By showing how each species communicates, plays, parents, works, and thinks, she reminds us that there is no one way to be a bird.

Learn more about Jennifer and her work here. To order an autographed copy of her book, visit our website.

Ecological Landscaping with Charles Smith, September 24th and October 1st

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Curleyheads photo by Rusty Moran

Virtual, register here
Thursdays, 24 September and 1 October 2020
$25 fee

Are you ready to put the Audubon at Home principles to action? Then this workshop is for you! In this 2-session workshop, participants will learn to apply ecological principles to creating backyard habitats and restoring ecosystems. Focus will be on looking not only at the needs of animals, but working with nature and using local ecosystems as examples for selecting species, building soils and providing natural structure.Charles Smith is a native of Arlington, VA, and a naturalist and ecologist with 25 years of experience working primarily in natural resource management, including the Fairfax County Park Authority and five years with Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. He is currently branch chief of Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division, focusing on stream and natural area restoration.

Social Science Perspectives on Ethno-racial Diversity in Wildlife Viewing and Conservation webinar recording

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A closed-captioned recording of the webinar is now available online, in case you missed it, want to watch again, or would like to share it with others. You can find the webinar here: https://video.vt.edu/media/0_4ng4izoa.

In this webinar, Jonathan Rutter (Virginia Tech) shares some insights from the social sciences on ethno-racial diversity in wildlife viewing and conservation. At the center of the webinar is a study on the relationship between race, ethnicity, and birdwatcher specialization based on a large, national survey of eBird users. Jonathan also shares an overview of the importance of ethno-racial diversity in wildlife conservation, management, and recreation; barriers to minority participation in outdoor recreation; and best practices for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in wildlife viewing, based on literature review conducted for this project. A short panel discussion includes Dr. Ashley Dayer (Virginia Tech) and Dr. Jennie Duberstein (Sonoran Joint Venture), who are co-authors on the study.

This webinar emerged principally in response to requests from the conservation community for broader translation of findings from the birdwatcher survey and in an effort to distill and share social science that can guide conservation organizations as they work to address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is in no way intended to replicate or replace the rich and important conversations about the lived experiences of people of color in birding, science, and conservation that have been occurring for some time, and increasingly over the summer of 2020. We acknowledge that the racial composition of speakers in this webinar is more reflective of our existing conservation community than the community we want to build, and we look forward to opportunities to highlight more diverse voices and perspectives in subsequent webinars and resources.

This webinar was co-hosted by the Human Dimensions Subcommittee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) and the Wildlife Viewing and Nature Tourism Working Group of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA).

A list of the references used in the presentation and some other recommended reading can be found as an attachment in the webinar link.

Learn Something New with ANS Naturalist Hour

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Mason Neck photo by Jerry Nissley

One of Capital Nature’s favorite providers of virtual nature programming in the region is the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS). Through its Naturalist Hour series, ANS hosts two to three expert naturalists each week to explore fascinating topics such as urban foraging, birds, caterpillars, climate change, botanical folklore, fungi, crickets, nature journaling and the list goes on.

Learn from entomologist Mike Raupp, for example, that 1.5 million periodical cicadas will emerge per acre next Spring! Mycologist and environmental educator Serenella Linares has taught us about the proper way to photograph mushrooms for identification. Wildlife education and outreach specialist Kerry Wixted has elucidated how various animal species mate in her session: “Wild Sex: How Nature Does It.” Stay tuned for details about another ANS Naturalist Hour from our team on October 27th, “Community Science with Capital Nature.”

If you have any nature-related expertise that you’d like to share with the community, contact [email protected] for possible consideration for Naturalist Hour. 

Invasive Water Chestnut Presentation, by Dr. Nancy Rybicki

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Photo by N. Rybicki

Posted with permission of the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS)

At the virtual Fairfax Master Naturalists Quarterly Chapter Meeting in May, Dr. Nancy Rybicki introduced us to a recently discovered non-native, invasive water chestnut species that is overrunning lakes and ponds in Fairfax County. She is seeking help organizing mechanisms to locate and eradicate this culprit before it becomes widespread.

Her presentation may be found here.

Fairfax Master Naturalists receive one hour of continuing education credit for reading the presentation if they missed it in person.

As an added bonus, there is a recent article in Chesapeake Bay Magazine about this water chestnut problem.