Last Chance Audubon Society
Promoting understanding, respect, and enjoyment of birds and the natural world
through education, habitat protection and environment advocacy.
About LCAS
Membership
Contact
Calendar
History
Birding
Field Trips
Christmas Bird Count
Birdathon
Birding in the Helena Area
Learning
Chapter Programs
Monthly Newsletters
Natural History Lecture Series
Conserving
Habitat Protection
Environmental Advocacy
Photo credits - Bob Martinka
LCAS web site funded by a bequest from the estate of Nancy Tunnicliff
BIRDATHON
The Last Change Audubon Society Birdathon is a major fund raiser for LCAS. Each spring in May and June, LCAS members join together in teams to located as many different bird species they can see in one day. LCAS members and other in the Helena community are asked to sponsor at team by contributing a monetary amount per species seen by their team. At typical team may see 80 to 120 species in their count day. Team sponsors will receive a team report detailing the team’s experiences during their count day and list of the bird species seen. This is great fun for the birdathon team and highly informative for the sponsors. If you are not a gambler teams gladly accept a flat amount toward their count effort. Half of the amount raised is dedicated to projects at Montana Audubon.
Funds raised from the Birdathon effort support local Helena habitat protection projects. Here is an example of the work done with funds collected in 2007.
In 2007 Last Chance Audubon raised and committed $2,000 to a major revegetation project at Spring Meadow Lake State Park, devastated by an arson fire in September 2006. On April 26th our members joined with local Boy Scouts and park volunteers to plant up to 30 trees (including green ash, aspen, poplar, and cottonwood) and over 30 shrubs (including chokecherry, buffalo berry, serviceberry, and currents). Prior to the fire Spring Meadow provided a home for a wide variety of songbirds including Northern water thrush, Northern Orioles, American redstarts, and a variety of warblers. It will take years to recover, but we have made a significant contribution to the future of this local birding area.
Birdathon Teams:
“Brother, Can you sparrow dime” (Jo Lace, Brian Shovers, Don & Andrea Stierle)
“Bigfoot and Baldy” (Sara Toubman, Cedron Jones)
“The Flock” (Janice Miller, Lorna Milne)
To sponsor a Birdathon Team or to be a team, contact Jo Lace at 443-6640 or at sholace@bresnan.net