Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
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Get your tickets before they're gone!
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Join us for our third annual Brew on the Bayou! Come sample and enjoy specialty brews from local breweries as well as wines. Listen to live music by the Intercoastal Pirates, watch a live raptor show, grab a delicious bite to eat from local food trucks and check out some hot items at our silent auction. Our beautiful wooded grounds will be lit by torchlight, making it a perfect spot to enjoy the brews, the food and the music!
Saturday, March 21
st
-- 5:00-9:00 p.m.
Tickets are $20/person with pre-sale,* and $25 at the door.
Call us in advance at 979-480-0999. ID required at door for brew-tasting.
*Pre-sale ends 3/10/2020.
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We Need Volunteers for Brew on the Bayou!
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Brew on the Bayou is coming up on March 21, and we need your help! We will be setting up the event on Friday and Saturday morning and manning the event on Saturday evening. If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please contact Celeste Silling at csilling@gcbo.org or 979-480-0999.
There are three volunteer sessions that you can sign up for:
Friday 3/20 (9:oo AM-2:00 PM),
Saturday 3/21 morning (10:00 AM- 2:00 PM)
Saturday 3/21 evening (4:30 PM- 9:30 PM).
You are welcome to sign up for any or all of the sessions.
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The American Oystercatchers are Nesting Again!
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The American Oystercatchers are already pairing up and nesting along the Texas Gulf Coast! Our Director of Conservation Research, Susan Heath, has already found several nesting attempts and two nests with eggs. These birds lead exciting lives, commonly nesting on bay islands where their nests are subject to predation, overwash, and other disturbances. To keep up with all of the American Oystercatcher news, check out our blog
here and look at the Oystercatcher Diaries!
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Join us at the Bay! The Matagorda Bay Birdfest 2020 is happening March 27, 28, & 29. This is an educational event in Palacios, TX connecting people, birds and nature. On March 28, GCBO's mascot Archie the Hummingbird will be taking a stroll in the bird parade and our staff will be manning GCBO's educational booth. Sue Heath, our Director of Conservation Research will be giving a
presentation called Wading Birds of Matagorda Bay.
Stop by and join us for the fun!
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Come join us for bird banding on
March 14th
from 8:00 a.m. to noon. This event is usually on the third Saturday of the month, but it has been moved for March. Come see birds in the hand and learn about the science of bird banding. Birds get up early, so the earlier you arrive, the more birds you'll see.
And at this month's bird banding, Mike Mullenweg from Brazoria County Parks will be hosting a special kayaking and birding event. Contact Celeste (csilling@gcbo.org) if you are interested in kayaking with the group!
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Adopt an Oystercatcher Pair and Keep Up With All the Mating Season Drama!
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It’s time again folks! We found the first American Oystercatcher nest on January 31. 12 & unbanded are leading the way as usual. Don't miss your chance to keep up with all the drama. If you would like to support this project (and we hope you would!) you can adopt a pair of oystercatchers for a $100 donation. You will receive a certificate for each member of your pair with their banding data and Sue will update you monthly on your pair's progress throughout the nesting season. When possible she will send you photos of nests and chicks. You can adopt your pair here:
adopt a pair of birds
or call and talk to Tricia or Sue. Thanks everyone for your continued support of this important project!
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Gulf Coast Bird Observatory is holding our first ever tag-line art contest. For full rules, dates, and information see our submission flier
here.
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Upcoming GCBO Birding Trips
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Cuba Birding Expedition - 1 opening!
October 15-26, 2020
Due to a cancellation we have one single opening for the upcoming Cuba trip!
Join GCBO for a trip of a lifetime! GCBO have worked on several Cuban bird conservation initiatives over the years. Here is your chance to join Executive Director Martin Hagne, and Conservation Research Director, Sue Heath, in not only collecting valuable bird data over much of Cuba, but also visit a migration banding station in the most bird diverse area of Cuba, Guanahacabibes!
The expedition includes 12 days and 11 nights. That’s 10 1/2 days of intense birding! It will include a chance for all but two of Cuba’s 28 endemic bird species! This will be a fairly fast paced exploration, with some early breakfasts and long days and much travel between sites, all intended to explore as many habitats as possible for the highest species count.
Our GCBO trips also help fund our continuing bird conservation work! Come bird with us, have a great time, and help us fulfil our mission!
You can get more information on or
website
or send
Martin
an email.
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Get ready for Spring Fling! Billions of birds migrate thousands of miles between breeding and wintering grounds, stopping in route to refuel at coastal stopover sites. At GCBO we manage, in cooperation with the Town of Quintana, our own patch of stopover habitat, the bird sanctuaries at Quintana, just ten miles south of our Lake Jackson headquarters.
We host a month-long Visitor Station each April, where GCBO volunteers assist with bird identification, sell snacks, field guides, t-shirts and hats, and post a daily bird list.
This year, Spring Fling will be happening
April 4 - May 6, 2020 9:00am – 4:00pm daily. See you there!
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Volunteer for Spring Fling!
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Volunteer for Spring Fling (see above) and spend some quality time outdoors helping visitors identify species, navigate the trails, purchas
e merchandise, and more!
Spring Fling is very popular with locals as well as out of state and international travelers and we depend on your help to make it a success.
2020 DATES FOR SPRING FLING ARE APRIL 4TH – MAY 6TH We need two volunteers for the AM and PM time slots each day. To sign up or get more information, please contact our head Spring Fling volunteer Regina Tippett at treeform54@yahoo.com
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Fill Your Garden With Native Plants This Spring
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If your need some new plants for your landscape this spring, stop by GCBO and take a look at our wide selection of native and established non-native plants.
Native plants bring in birds, butterflies, and other wildlife and are a great choice for a healthy ecosystem. You can come by our gift store and purchase your plants at any time during office hours or, you can come to our spring plant sale on April 18, 8 AM-noon.
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If you like learning about birds, we suggest you try the educational PDFs that Jim Stevenson creates. They mostly involve local species with some commentary, plus announcements about activities of local birding groups such as the GOS, Galveston Audubon, GCBO, and more. Just email Jim at
galornsoc@earthlink.net
and ask to be placed on the GOS bird list.
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Have you updated your email preferences yet?
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We're working on fine tuning our email list so that you only get emails that matter to you. At the very bottom of each email there is an "
update profile
" or "
unsubscribe
" link you can click that will take you to a page where you can make your selections. We now have specific lists for things like volunteer news, special announcements, events, bird of the month, and more. Please take a moment to
update your preferences
if you haven't already. Thank you!
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You can help support GCBO's mission in several important ways!
Save a Tree and some $!
We are trying to go as paperless as we can to save some trees and quite a bit on printing and mailing costs. We would love if you would let us email you instead of snail mailing a hard copy of any correspondence, including your future copies of the Gulf Crossings. Please
email
or call
Tricia
to say: “
Hey, GCBO, please start emailing me things! Here is my email…”
Thanks!
DONATE NOW
on our website to support our conservation programs.
BECOME A MEMBER
and receive our twice a year newsletter and a 10% discount in our nature store.
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Make an in-kind donation to support our sanctuary needs.
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Tents
We are in need of a few more 12’ x 12’ pop up tents/canopies. If you have one or more in good contention, we will put them to good use for kid’s camp, XHX, and Brew on the Bayou!
Rain Gauge
With all the rain from Imelda we realized we need a good quality rain gauge so we can keep track of how much rain we receive at our headquarters.
Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Chicken Scratch
We feed year-round here at GCBO, and during migration at Quintana. We stock our GCBO feeders to help augment natural foods, and this also helps our monthly banding research project.
One Gallon Plastic Pots
We can use your used 1 gallon nursery plant pots for the Growery. We go through a lot of 1 gallon pots when potting up new plants. Let’s recycle them here. We’ll take one or a hundred!
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Now when you shop at Kroger, you can support GCBO!
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GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click
here
. Our charity number is #DN782.
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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
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