Red Tails May/June 2026
- naomihanvey
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Click below to download a PDF of the newsletter!
The 9th Annual Eco-Gardening Symposium
by Gayle Talbot, President
What a fun day! Our Audubon chapter was invited to join the WSU Master Gardeners’ Eco-Gardening Symposium in Moses Lake, on Saturday, April 18th this year. Seventeen vendors were present, located just outside the main auditorium and three breakout session classrooms at the ATEC Building on the BBCC campus. This free event was well attended and kept us on our toes!
Jackie Chase and I made many connections with other local conservation groups and were warmly welcomed by all. Our main focus was our Pollinator Garden/Habitat Hero program with its challenge to students age 12 and under and their families. By presenting at both the Sandhill Crane Festival in March and this event, we think that our project will get the best exposure and parent (or grandparent) by-in for this home project!
We did get some visits from friends of CBAS (Barb Guilliand, Louis Logan, Kaley Wisher and others) and handed out many packets of information for kids and their families, along with books, native seeds and bird feeder kits. Our scrapbook was an easy way to show our visitors what our Audubon Chapter has been up to over the past three years. We even welcomed a new member, Diane Esure, who joined on the spot! Woo Hoo!
Sandhill Magic, Indeed!
By Gayle Talbot, President
The theme of this year’s Othello Sandhill Crane Festival was “Sandhill Magic,” and it was a flying success! Our Audubon chapter always has a booth in the vendors’ area at the school, and this year we were given an excellent location (and requested it for following years as well). Not only did we give out dozens of easy bird-feeder kits, a massive number of custom green bird band rings as souvenirs, and some very coveted maps of the Great Washington State Birding Trail/Coulee Corridor Scenic Byway, but we also gave out our Pollinator Garden/ Habitat Hero project packets to several families with kids 12 and under!
Jane Stiger, Jackie Chase and I were kept busy talking to attendees who visited our booth. We had a few special people stop by, like Paula Zanter-Stout, our bird photographer for our Red Tails newsletter. Randy Hill, the former biologist at the CNWR and friend of CBAS, visited long enough to say hi and for a photo. We also saw our dear friend Jane Grant, who is credited with beginning the ARK program (Audubon Refuge Keepers) that we have continued since 1994 when CBAS became involved. Jane wore the shirt from the very first Othello Crane Festival and it looked like new (hint: she only wears it once a year.)
If you missed out this year, be sure to save the date for next year: March 18-21 2027. Registration will open January 30 at 8:00 am. Register at www.othellossandhillcranefestival.org Tours really fill up fast! Follow on Facebook at their page, Othello Sandhill Crane Festival.
Thank You So Much!
By Margaret Schiffner, Treasurer
We are so grateful to our scholarship donors, and it looks like we will add at least one more student for a scholarship for the 2026-2027 school year! Thank you to Wayne Edwards, Coulee City, WA; Smart Payables, Englewood, CO; The Blackbaud Giving Fund, Charleson, SC; Donna & Justin White, Bolton, MA; William Rosen, Franklin, TN; and J.P. Morgan Donor Advised Fund, Jenkintown, PA.
We are also thankful for our faithful members’ renewals: Twila Herrin, Moses Lake; John Moody, Yuma, AZ; and Mona Kaiser, Soap Lake.
Also many thanks to Naomi Hanvey for her graphic design skills and working with her mom, Gayle Talbot; to Paula Zanter-Stout for her beautiful bird photography: and finally, to A&H Printers for our beautiful finished newsletter.
Bird Watching!
photos by Paula Zanter-Stout
Comments