Many of you have said how much you miss our MCAS field trips and meeting activities, on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Board recently held a virtual meeting to discuss chapter activities for the fall of 2020. Given the current levels of concern over the pandemic in MS and along the Gulf Coast, the Board has decided to cancel any in-person chapter events (field trips, programs, Bird-a-thon, etc.) through December 2020. The health and safety of our members, the broader birding community, and the public is our utmost concern and priority. Our decision is in line with guidelines from our State, the CDC, and National Audubon.
If you do undertake birding in the field on your own, please follow the guidance provided at these links: https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,0,420.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html
Even in a pandemic, there are still ways to enrich your birding experience, such as solo birding – as demonstrated by Suzanne in the photo in our banner! Here we provide a brief summary of resources that can help all of us stay active and learning about our wonderful coastal birdlife:
Check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mscoastaudubon/ to get announcements of online presentations, events, and stewardship opportunities. Our partner organizations Audubon Mississippi Coastal Bird Stewardship Program https://www.facebook.com/AudubonMississippiCoastalBirdStewardshipProgram/ and Pascagoula River Audubon Center https://www.facebook.com/pascagoula.center/ have their own Facebook pages, too.
Join the private Facebook group, Mississippi Gulf Coast Band of Birders https://www.facebook.com/groups/586680148085312/ We are encouraging this group to arrange informal meetups for birding with appropriate safety measures.
Join the email list Missbird, through the Mississippi Ornithological Society http://missbird.org/ Birders from all over the State post here. MOS also has its own private Facebook group, Mississippi Birding https://www.facebook.com/groups/462761710548590/
Use eBird https://ebird.org, the international birding observation database, to track your own birding observations and see what others are seeing nearby. Don’t know how to use eBird? See the tutorials at https://ebird.org/about
Use iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/ to post your bird photos and sound files, and get help identifying what you see and hear. Learn how to use iNaturalist at https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started
Check out the possibilities of the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail http://mscoastbirdingtrail.audubon.org/ This site shows some of our all-time best birding trails. The site is somewhat out of date, so double-check that trails are open.
So you’ve got many ways to keep birding – and MCAS will be back as soon as we can!
