{"id":497,"date":"2016-01-15T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=497"},"modified":"2016-01-15T13:59:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T18:59:27","slug":"st-johns-county-audubon-society-rebuilds-supports-great-backyard-bird-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/st-johns-county-audubon-society-rebuilds-supports-great-backyard-bird-count\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Johns County Audubon Society rebuilds, supports Great Backyard Bird Count"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson
\neditor@floridanewsline.com<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost time to dust off your binoculars and take part in the annual event where you join your neighbors to identify and count local birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society, will be held Feb. 12 \u2013 16. Locally, the newly rebuilding St. John County Audubon Society will offer support to backyard birders who would like to participate.<\/p>\n

The St. Johns County Audubon Society, chartered in 1979, had a few recent years of inactivity, but new president Jean Rolke is leading the group full steam ahead to rebuild the chapter and make up for lost time. The club has approximately 500 members, but not all are fully active.<\/span><\/p>\n

NW St. Johns County resident Rolke is just the right person to lead the turnaround. She describes herself as an \u201cintermediate\u201d birdwatcher, but the Old Dominion University graduate with a degree in biology says she took an ornithology class her senior year and was immediately hooked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part about being involved with Audubon is seeing the awe and wonder and excitement on a person\u2019s face when they look up in the sky and start seeing birds they would have missed had we not pointed them out and made them aware,\u201d Rolke says.<\/span><\/p>\n

This encouragement of awareness of the birds around us is one of the tenets of the Audubon Society, which states as its mission \u201cto conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Rolke, the four goals of the St. Johns County Audubon Society are education, citizen science, fundraising and conservation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group stays active in the education area by sponsoring bird walks and field trips for all ages, collaborating and presenting programs with the TAG Children\u2019s Museum and hosting workshops.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our most popular workshops is a photography workshop which focuses on ethical nature photography and teaches how to get that \u2018great shot\u2019 without overly stressing the birds,\u201d Rolke explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

Citizen science is a growing field of public participation in scientific research in which members of the public engage in the process of scientific investigations: asking questions, collecting data and\/or interpreting results that Rolke likes to call \u201cboots on the ground.\u201d Examples of this are the recently completed Christmas Bird Count, coordinated in St. Johns County by Diane Reed, and the upcoming Great Backyard Bird Count.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual Great Backyard Bird Count gives everyone the chance to participate in citizen science. The goal, Rolke said, is to get people inspired and interested about local birds. To that end, the St. Johns County Audubon Society is offering many ways to help people participate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Packets of information will be available at all St. Johns County Public Libraries as well as at the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Fruit Cove. The society will offer a Great Backyard Bird Count Bird Walk to communities who request one, and a free webinar will be available for educators. Visit www. gbbc.birdcount.org and <\/span>www.stjohnsaudubon.com\/<\/span><\/a> for all the details.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rolke says the Great Backyard Bird Count is an excellent opportunity to take that first step towards birdwatching.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe live right in the middle of the Atlantic Migratory Flyway,\u201d Rolke says. \u201cWe have birds coming and going!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The St. Johns County Audubon Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible. The society also offers an employer matching donation program. For more information about membership in the St. Johns County Audubon Society, visit <\/span><\/i>www.stjohnsaudubon.com<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Jean Rolke
\n<\/span><\/em>Red Shouldered Hawk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com It\u2019s almost time to dust off your binoculars and take part in the annual event where you join your neighbors to identify and count local birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society, will be held Feb. 12 \u2013 16. Locally, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[46],"class_list":{"0":"post-497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-ponte-vedra","9":"tag-great-backyard-bird-count"},"yoast_head":"\nSt. Johns County Audubon Society rebuilds, supports Great Backyard Bird Count - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLine, Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com It\u2019s almost time to dust off your binoculars and take part in the annual event where you join your neighbors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/st-johns-county-audubon-society-rebuilds-supports-great-backyard-bird-count\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St. Johns County Audubon Society rebuilds, supports Great Backyard Bird Count - 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