Red Tails Nov/Dec 2025
- naomihanvey
- Nov 11
- 3 min read
Click below to download a PDF of the newsletter!
Ron Van Nurden Memorial Scholarship
by John Moody, Eduction Chairman
CBAS has recently mailed all our members a letter encouraging you to contribute any amount to our scholarship fund. Perhaps you are wondering about this invitation you receive every year.
This scholarship offered by the Central Basin Audubon Society is in memory of Ron Van Nurden. As a member of the CBAS, Ron led student tours in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge for many years. He had a passion for teaching young children about conservation and the vast wildlife of the area. Ron always encouraged students to consider studies in wildlife habitat and management. He helped develop a scholarship application for graduating high school seniors to help fund their freshman year of college tuition. Ron also chaired the committee reviewing the submitted scholarship applications. Money was raised each year through auctions at well-attended CBAS Annual Membership Meetings. Over the past two decades, this program has provided tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to graduating high school seniors and to those college students continuing to pursue a degree in wildlife habitat, environmental engineering benefitting wildlife, fish and game enforcement, wildlife veterinary, or a complementary area of study.
After Ron died in June 2010, and at the suggestion of then Director Roy Brown, the CBAS Board of Directors voted to name the scholarship in memory of Ron Van Nurden. Since 2016, funds to support the scholarship program are raised through solicitation and private donation.
Every year, our Annual Meeting invites all our scholarship recipients and their families to join us in a meal and to hear more about these wonderful students. You, too, are invited to attend.
Bird Walks
by Margaret Heming, Field Trip Chair
On Saturday, August 23, we had a fun CBAS outing to North Potholes Reserve. Wednesday, I saw hundreds of Pelicans and Egrets from the main dike road through the area. On Saturday they were gone! It took a while, but we finally found about 250 American White Pelicans from the viewpoint above the Reserve. A glorious sight! Other highlights included Black-necked Stilts, Great Blue Herons, Lark Sparrows, California Quail, Spotted Sandpiper, and Greater Yellowlegs. Unfortunately, as we tried to clear away weeds from the Reserve’s bird blind, we stirred up a hornet’s nest and three people got stung. Luckily, I had Benadryl in my first aid kit. It was a fun-loving, bird-loving “flock of birders,” including myself, Victor & Shery Rasmussen, Jackie Chase, Paula Zanter-Stout, Carissa Farris, Gayle Talbot, Stella & Gary Harer, Paige Patterson, and photographer Jeff Cummings. Jeff was along to take photos for the Grant County Tourism Commission. He has generously shared his photos with us to use in this newsletter.
The final CBAS-sponsored Bird Walk of 2025, in Potholes State Park, was also a lot of fun and well-attended. The twelve of us included myself, Mary Bafus, Paula Zanter-Stout, Sue Latshaw, Sherry Ulrich, Becky & Chris Lyle, Jackie Chase, Carolyn Wachtel, Pat Simmons, and Susan Hickok with her grandson, Sawyer Hickok. September 27 was a lovely fall day to enjoy the birds at the State Park. One highlight was when a small flock of Snow Geese flew in and joined the other waterfowl on the shore. Dozens of Western Grebes were out on the water. There were many Great Egrets, American Coots, Ring-billed Gulls, and a few American White Pelicans. Some of us stopped at Lind Coulee when we left the State Park and saw lots of Long-billed Dowitchers and some Greater Yellowlegs, and heard Sandhill Cranes.
RSVP for Christmas Bird Count Trial Run
CBAS long-time member Doug Schonewald has developed a new Potholes-Moses Lake Christmas Bird Count. The date is set for Saturday, December 13 and will need at least 10 people or it will have to cancel! If you want to participate, contact Doug at (509) 760-5884 (please text only).
Did You Know?
by John Moody, Education Chair
Long-time CBAS member, past Director and current Education Chairman, John Moody, recently moved from Ephrata, Washington to Yuma, Arizona. This year, John was chosen as the Honorary Farmer of the Year for the Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Day, held September 13, 2025.
John is known for his community service on the Columbia Basin Project since 1996. Besides being an active member with CBAS, John still remotely participates on the Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Day Committee, the Columbia Basin Development League, and the Lower Grand Coulee Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute.
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