ASNV has eliminated its COVID-19 – related restrictions on in-person gatherings, bird walks and surveys and will follow the CDC’s guidelines as they change from time to time.

In 2020, we are holding the Christmas Bird Count in the midst of a pandemic. What did birders do in 1918, in the midst of the Spanish flu pandemic?

Anyone who has been outside recently on trails and in developed areas has noticed the increasing amount of trash on the ground. Glenda Booth, a member of our Advocacy Committee, wrote an article about this “Pandemic Pollution” for The Connection Newspapers.

If you missed the virtual birding Facebook Premier with our friends at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, you can view the recorded session.

“It is not only a sin to kill a mockingbird, it is also a crime.” With those words, referencing Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a federal court judge has invalidated a U.S. Department of the Interior memorandum that eliminated more than 100 years of protection for migratory birds

Soon we will begin—cautiously – to resume bird walks this fall. While the activity is outdoors, we still want to avoid the need for participants to be in close proximity. Even though the business economy is restarting, we realize that the virus is still a significant risk, especially to older people.

Seriously in need of a get-away without compromising our health, my wife and I packed a lunch and drinks and headed out for a socially-distanced day trip to the West Virginia border to search for birds we’d not seen before – Red Crossbills.

Getting back into nature is often the best therapy for challenging times. Read on for a link to Glenda Booth’s article, originally published in Zebra, on the importance of getting outside.

We’re now offering most of our classes and workshops online due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s been difficult to get out birding as much as we’d like during the shut-down. That gives us a great opportunity to brush up on our birding skills and knowledge from the comfort of our homes.

Bryan Watts, Director of The Center for Conservation Biology, has written a timely article about the importance of social distancing or spacing among various bird species.

Our birding friends tell us how glad they are to have birding during this time of social distancing. Even though they might not be visiting their favorite parks and hot spots, they can walk outside and experience the songs and displays of our region’s spectacular spring migration. When ASNV decided in March to cancel all of our in-person activities because of Covid-19, we received many questions about what was safe to do.

When schools closed due to the Coronavirus, my husband and I decided to homeschool our 10-year-old daughter. We wanted to come up with some interesting science projects to keep her engaged during these challenging times. We started off raising tadpoles, where our daughter would gather data to calculate their survival and growth rates. We thought about designing a vegetation habitat survey or an invertebrate creek survey. Can you tell we’re biologists?

Last month we announced the winner of our Hog Island Scholarship for teachers, Phoebe Riegle, a fifth-grade teacher at William Ramsey Elementary School in Alexandria, VA. Unfortunately, she will not have the opportunity to attend “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” this year. Hog Island Audubon Camp cancelled their summer programs out of concern for the health and safety of campers, volunteers and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.

While in-person Audubon at Home Ambassador visits are paused you can still plan for spring planting with information on our website. Native-only plant vendors in our area will be taking orders in advance and arranging for curbside pick-up.

While working in my garden the other day, I simply had to stop and listen to the chorus of birdsong coming from a nearby tree. In rapid succession, I heard the “peter, peter, peter” of a Tufted Titmouse, a Northern Cardinal’s “cheerily, cheer-up,” the “teakettle, teakettle” song of a Carolina Wren, and assorted chip notes that I couldn’t place – followed by what was unmistakably the ring of a cell phone.