NCWAS is committed to helping expand knowledge about birds, natural science, and the environment through involvement in the programs below:
What ’s That Bird? (WTB):
NCWAS volunteers place life-size hand-carved and painted wooden birds in low tree branches. Children take a checklist, locate the birds, note field marks, and look at bird charts to identify the bird they saw. You can learn a bit more about What’s That Bird? here.
WTB is used regularly at Leavenworth Spring Birdfest, Youth on the Columbia through Wenatchee Valley Museum and the Wenatchee Row and Paddle Club, Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, Earth Day, at various camps, and at Chief Joseph Dam or Bridgeport State Park for elementary grade programs run by the Corps of Engineers. Over several weeks in the spring and fall, area elementary classes travel to Wenatchee Confluence State Park and participate in a rotation of activities.
Speakers and programs:
Photo programs and videos by chapter members provide opportunities for local people to learn about the birds in their area. Speakers give programs at groups such as Kiwanis and Wenatchee Naturalist classes. We have annual responsibility for parts of the Environmental Film and Speaker Series at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.
Binoculars:
NCW Audubon owns a classroom set of binoculars that we use with What’s That Bird? and two additional sets that are available for loan to others.
Birding Resources:
Would you like to know some great areas to visit to bird in North Central Washington? Our Interactive Birding Route Maps show may options in our area. You’ll find information about how to get there, what habitats are present, and what birds you may see during different times of the year.
Outreach
NCWAS thinks of “outreach” as a means to grow our communities in a substantial way. A major part of our outreach focuses on kids in the hopes that we can influence them in a positive way. We use a variety of ways to distribute our information and education. The primary means by which we do this are listed below.
Festivals
North Central Washington hosts several festivals and celebrations each year. Primary among these are:
Our committee members design and schedule all the events within Birdfest. We conduct a What’s That Bird event at Salmonfest. We have participated in Earth Day celebrations in Bridgeport, WA, Leavenworth, WA and in Wenatchee, WA. We set up tables of Audubon materials, posters of local birds, children’s activities, books, and other information.
Common Birds of North Central Washington Poster
Our Common Birds of North Central Washington Poster is a “crowd pleaser.” Currently (September 2023), we are distributing Version 11 of the poster. This poster has both English and Spanish names for the bird species. A new version of the poster will be prepared soon to improve the image quality of a few birds and strengthen the tie from the poster to the NCWAS website.
Newsletter
NCWAS publishes our newsletter, The Wild Phlox, nine times each year. Our newsletter provides a calendar of events, notifications about activities or programs, articles about birds and conservation, notices of bird sightings, and contact information for Board members. See our current and past issues
Social Media
The North Central Washington Audubon Society uses social media to distribute a variety of information to our followers. We post announcements of events, highlight “birds of the week”, quiz readers about bird identification, and share posts from others that are relevant to our mission.
Listserv
NCWA maintained a “listserv” group on Yahoo Groups for many years. This Yahoo group was a great place to share bird sightings and hold conversations about birds in North Central Washington. As a result of Yahoo’s announcement that they are discontinuing their Yahoo Group service, NCW Audubon moved our Yahoo “listserv” group to a Google Group site. All members of the Yahoo group have been moved to the new Google Group name NCWABird.
If you are an existing member of the old Yahoo group, you can contribute bird sightings to the Google Group by sending an email to ncwabird@googlegroups.com.
If you want to join the NCWABird group, please visit groups.google.com, search for the group from the list of “all groups” and then ask to join. We look forward to your participation. Thanks
Public Media
When NCWAS wants to gain a broad awareness of an important event such as a presentation by a widely known and respected authority or a critical date for participation in our photo contest, we provide Public Service Announcements to radio stations in our area, the local TV station, and local newspapers. For a few years, Board member Bruce McCammon has provided a monthly article about a seasonal bird for publication in The Good Life magazine. Maybe you know another way we could inform people about our activities and opportunities. If so, please drop us an email at ncwaudubon@gmail.com Thanks.
Blog
The blog tied to our website gives us the opportunity to write articles to report relevant information that supports our bird community. It may contain trip reports, results of surveys or contests, information about events in which NCWAS is participating, or other fun and informative information. We look forward to sharing entertaining and informative information on our blog.