Quad City Audubon Society holds monthly membership meetings from September through May, on the second Thursday of the
month beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Butterworth Center, 1105 8th Street, Moline. Every meeting includes a presentation on a
natural history or conservation topic. Topics run the gamut from butterflies to endangered ocean life, to ice-age geology,
and, of course, birds. Birding presentations span the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic, with stops in the tropics,
and the Midwest. Following is a list of upcoming presentations.
Scroll down the page to find upcoming programs, field trips and special events.
2012 Regular Meetings
January 12 - Two films from National Audubon Society will be shown. "Restoring America's Delta", a film documenting the rich biodiversity of the Mississippi River delta and what can be done to restore it, and "A Family of Stewards", documents Audubon's efforts to monitor the bird species along the Gulf's beaches. CANCELLED (SNOWSTORM)
February 9 - Roxie DeShane presents "Flying Flowers". Learn about butterflies and what you can do to attract these "flying flowers". This is the time to start planning your spring garden and to welcome these wonderful pollinators. Handouts are available to assist you in planning and planting your garden. Dallas and Roxie DeShane are members of the University of Illinois Extension, Rock Island County Master Gardeners. Both are past Presidents. They have been on the Speakers Bureau for the Master Gardeners since its inception seven years ago and have been presenters in both Iowa and Illinois at many seminars, libraries, organizations and garden clubs. They are founders of the Quad City Area Gourd Patch which holds the "Gourd"geous Day in the Country gourd festival at their home the last Saturday in September.
2012 Field Trips
February 25, Sunday - Wildcat Den State Park for winter residents. Dick Sayles will lead this field trip. Meet at the Marquette Street Landing at 7:30 a.m. *
* Field trip will be canceled in the event of hazardous winter road conditions.2012 Special Events
January 6-8, Friday-Sunday - Bald Eagle Days, Quad Cities Expo Center, Rock Island, Friday, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Quad City Audubon Society will again have an information booth at the Expo Center. The QCAS has supported and participated in Bald Eagle Days since its inception. Each year, many of our members generously donate their time to help spread the message about QCAS by helping to man our booth. The booth will have information about the Quad City Audubon Society. We need volunteers to help run the booth. We will also lead bus trips on Saturday and Sunday for viewing bald eagles along the Mississippi River at various spots, including Lock & Dam 15 where dozens of eagles are often seen. Spotting scopes will be provided. Buses will leave at 10:30, 11:45, 1:00, 2:15 and 3:30 from the Expo Center. Please contact Janelle Swanberg at (563) 324-9806 or jswanberg@mchsi.com to volunteer to help at our booth or the bus tours.
February 4, Saturday - Eagle Watch at the Figge Art Museum, 12:00-3:00 p.m. Quad City Audubon members will set up and man scopes for bald eagle watching on the Mississippi River as part of the Figge’s “Fins and Feathers” Free Family Day.
February 17-20, Friday-Sunday - The Great Backyard Bird Count. Join birders across the United States and Canada in this annual survey of bird distribution. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four day event that engages people of all ages in counting birds to create a snapshot of where the birds are found across the continent. It’s free, fun and easy, and anyone can participate. Count birds in your area for 15 minutes or longer during any or all of the four days in the period by tallying the highest number of any species of bird you see at one time. Submit your findings using an online checklist at the GBBC website. Anyone with internet access can watch the results unfold across North America and see how they compare to previous years’ surveys. Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn much from the continued work of citizen scientists. Each year that data from the GBBC, Christmas Bird Counts, Project FeederWatch and eBird sightings is recorded gives us a better, more up to date picture of bird distribution across Canada and the United States. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a project of National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. Last year, counters submitted over 92,000 checklists for a total of 594 total species observed and over 11 million individual birds were counted. You can learn more at www.birdsource.org/gbbc.
An archive of monthly membership meetings, field trips and special events from past years can be viewed here: Calendar Archives
Acknowledgment: photo by Ken Carnes