Community Science is about learning, empowerment, and building a constituency, as people count birds for conservation. Audubon’s vision is to engage communities in asking questions about their environment and to help them gather information to answer questions that they and professional biologists are asking. By being part of the process, it is our vision that a growing number of people will become empowered to take action on behalf of places important to them and important to wildlife, giving birth to a new culture of conservation. – National Audubon Society
1) National Audubon Climate Watch: According to Audubon’s 2019 climate change report, ‘Survival By Degrees,’ up to two-thirds of North American birds are vulnerable to extinction due to climate change. The good news is that there are opportunities to protect birds from this existential threat. Climate Watch aims to document species’ responses to climate change and test Audubon’s climate models by having volunteers in the field looking for birds where Audubon’s climate models predict them to be in the 2020s.
Our chapter is involved with Climate Watch and as of the spring of 2026, we have 12 survey sites with each one consisting of between 10 and 12 survey points. We hope to add many more sites in the years to come.
2) Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring Program: This project is a cooperative effort to maintain a network of nesting boxes for American Kestrels in North Central Washington and monitor those boxes annually in a standard manner. We hope to learn and document enough about the kestrels using the boxes installed to establish baseline data on productivity and population trends to aid future kestrel conservation work.
Our 3 goals are to 1) contribute to the productivity of kestrels in North Central Washington in hopes that the population in the area stabilizes over time; 2) Engage volunteers in gathering information useful to science and sharing that data, and 3) Engage researchers in a cooperative study of this population of American kestrels.
Over the next several years we plan to put up approximately 250 Kestrel boxes primarily in the Waterville Plateau area, which should help boost population numbers. As of February 2026, with the help of 40+ volunteers, we monitor 215 boxes. Click here to view a copy of our 5-year data summary.
Click here for a view inside one of our kestrel nest boxes to see a female with her 6-day old chicks.
3) Beebe Springs Natural Area Bird Survey: The Beebe Springs Natural Area is a 200-acre former orchard along the Columbia River. For over ten years, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been restoring Beebe Creek and its surrounding riparian and shrub-steppe habitat to improve salmon and steelhead spawning grounds. In the process, beavers have moved in, birds have returned, and river otters frequent the area.
For the past nine years, Virginia Palumbo has been conducting twice-monthly community science bird surveys at Beebe. This data is then shared with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife which oversees Beebe Springs. The data is used to assess the increase and diversification of species. 163 bird species have been seen to date. If you would like to participate in this survey on the first and third Wednesday of each month, please contact Virginia at vwpalumbo@gmail.com
4) Winter Raptor Survey: This is a winter raptor survey coordinated through the Bend OR Audubon chapter.
The Winter Raptor Survey [WRS] project, established in the winter of 2004-05, is designed to determine wintering populations of the various species of birds of prey throughout the state of Oregon, and parts of California, Idaho, and Washington. Through a collection of pre-approved survey routes, volunteers completing the once-a-month surveys from December through February will count the various species that they find and report their findings to the project coordinator.
Over a dozen volunteers within our chapter boundaries help with this project. Participants average 4.5 hours and 60+ miles each month logging the raptors seen along designated routes. If you would like to participate, please contact Jeff Fleischer at raptorrunner97321@yahoo.com.
5) Nason Ridge Community Forest Survey: This survey, begun in the Fall of 2022, is being conducted to provide information on bird species to the Chelan County Natural Resources Department. This 3,714-acre Community Forest is a mosaic of well-managed forest land and industrial logging that is now entrusted to Chelan County to care for into the future. The goal of this monthly survey will be to determine baseline bird data and ongoing changes in bird use within identified areas of the Community Forest. This information will help Chelan County in making resource management decisions and assist with the determination of future efforts based on past results. Going forward the results of this survey may be used to inform decisions prioritizing areas best suited for improved habitat and wildlife conservation.
There are seven survey sites that characterize the varied habitats of this once-industrial forest land. The surveys are conducted in the first week of every month year-round. If you would like to participate, please contact Mary Willard Gallagher at marywillardgallagher@live.com
6) Horse Lake Bluebird Box Trail Monitoring Project: In 2024 we installed 20 Bluebird boxes built by Paul Rachey at Horse Lake Preserve on the outskirts of Wenatchee. In 2025, David Howe and Stu Smith alternately made 7 visits to the boxes during the breeding season to monitor use of the boxes. Nineteen of the 20 Horse Lake boxes experienced some kind of use in 2025. Six boxes fledged at least 20 western bluebirds. Another box fledged 6 mountain bluebirds.
7) Moses Coulee Bluebird Box Trail Monitoring Project: In 2024 we installed 16 Bluebird boxes built by Paul Rachey at The Nature Conservancy in Moses Coulee. In 2025, Michael Dello Russo and Joe Veverka made a total of 11 or so visits to each box, monitoring activity during the breeding season. Five boxes were used successfully by mountain bluebirds fledging 21 young.
8) Cashmere Canyons Bluebird Box Trail Monitoring Project: Three Bluebird box trails are located at Chelan-Douglas Land Trust’s Cashmere Canyons Preserve a few miles north of the town of Cashmere. They were not monitored this past year but will be starting in 2026.
Read more here about the 2025 Bluebird box survey results.
9) Rock Island Ponds Wood Duck Box Monitoring Project: This has been an ongoing monitoring project on PUD land surrounding Big Bow and Hideaway ponds in the city of Rock Island. NCW Audubon became involved in 2025 and will coordinate with the PUD to collect quality data in 2026.
Finished Projects as of the end of 2023:
1) Stemilt Basin and Beehive Reservoir Surveys: We ran the Stemilt Basin survey for 2 years (2021-2022) and the Beehive Reservoir survey will conclude at the end of this year (2022-2023). The Chelan County Natural Resources Department requested our Audubon chapter to do this work as they are looking to restore this high-elevation forested watershed and could use bird data to help with their decision-making. We surveyed 9 sites in the Stemilt Basin area and 6 sites in the Beehive area.
2) North Central Washington Hummingbird Project: This is a Community Science Study Project started in December 2021 designed to be conducted four times per year at solstices and equinoxes. Among other things, we hope to answer questions about Anna’s Hummingbirds in North Central Washington: Is there a persistent breeding population in North Central Washington? What nectar sources (feeders and/or plants) are utilized? Are the Anna’s hummingbirds we see in winter the same as the ones that are here in the summer? This project ended after the September 2023 survey.
3) Rock Island Ponds Survey (2020-2022): The goal of this survey was to determine bird use among the ponds in the city of Rock Island. The surveys helped determine which ponds are most valuable to various bird species. The results of this survey have been used to inform the city’s decisions in prioritizing areas best suited for wildlife conservation. We conducted surveys monthly and have seen 100+ bird species. We summarized the work last year and the results are posted on this website under Conservation. Click here to view a copy of the final report.