2025 Backyard Bird ID Workshop - Get Ready for Birdathon at Home!
Join us for an exciting backyard bird identification workshop, where we’ll dive into the fascinating world of local birds and seasonal visitors!
Photo: Eastern Towhee, Calli Cook/Audubon Photography Awards
Original program date: March 20, 2025
Join us for an exciting backyard bird identification workshop, where we’ll dive into the fascinating world of local birds and seasonal visitors! Whether you’re watching from your window, patio, or garden, you’ll gain the confidence to identify and appreciate the birds around you.
During this workshop, we’ll cover:
Common backyard bird species you’re likely to see year-round
Migratory warblers that might pass through your yard this Spring
Essential birding tools—from field guides to apps and binoculars
How to use Merlin to identify unfamiliar birds
How to use eBird to report birds you observe
Tips for creating a team and participating in Birdathon
This event is perfect for those looking to compete in the Backyard Birdathon category of Birdathon, our Spring Fundraiser, where you create a team to count as many unique species as you can in one day!
This is also a great opportunity for Wildlife Sanctuary Program participants to brush up on how to identify the Sanctuary Species that visit their yards. You need to document 10 sanctuary species to get your certification! Board Member Betsy Martin will join us to speak about that program and how we can all make our yards friendlier to birds.
Building Back Bird Diversity: Best Management Practices that Really Work!
Join us for Justin Proctor’s presentation on bird-friendly best management practices to apply across rural, suburban, and urban landscapes.
Graphic: Evan Barrientos/Audubon
Original program date: December 17, 2024
Join us for Justin Proctor’s presentation on bird-friendly best management practices to apply across rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. His talk explores strategies, technical assistance, and cost-share programs that can greatly simplify and accelerate your adopting and putting into effect practices that increase habitat and biodiversity on your property. Specific practices to be covered include how to convert lawns into functional grasslands, transitioning to zero emission landscaping equipment, reducing and refining landscape management, dark skies lighting, and many more.
Justin Proctor is a conservation biologist with the Smithsonian's Virginia Working Landscapes program. He is based in Front Royal, VA. He coordinates the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative, working to assist producers and landowners in adopting a suite of best management practices for bird conservation on their landscapes. Justin has spent 15+ years working in the fields of science, education, and conservation, affording him opportunities to conduct ornithological research across the western hemisphere. Justin is excited to be a part of an initiative that takes science and turns it into action that benefits biodiversity, landscape resiliency, farmer livelihoods, and local communities.
Native Plant Communities with Matt Bright
Enjoy this presentation on “Earth Sangha’s Native Plant Compendium, Plant Communities and Native Plant Selection” given by Matt Bright, Conservation Manager for Earth Sangha.
Photo: New York Ironweed, Matt Bright
Original program date: March 19, 2022
Audubon at Home Ambassadors held their annual Potluck Ambassadors’ Brunch at the Fairfax County Government Center on March 19—a welcome gathering, their first in two years. Thirty-two Ambassadors attended, and enjoyed a presentation on “Earth Sangha’s Native Plant Compendium, Plant Communities and Native Plant Selection” given by Matt Bright, Conservation Manager for Earth Sangha.
Audubon Afternoon: John Magee
Join us as we welcome John Magee, award winning landscape designer and host of The Native Plant Podcast.
Photo: Rain garden, John Magee
Original program date: March 21, 2021
Join us as we welcome John Magee, award winning landscape designer and host of The Native Plant Podcast.
John Magee has been designing and building landscapes in the Washington DC Metro area and beyond for the past 25 years. After receiving his B.S. degree in Agriculture from the Ohio State University and spending a few years training and showing horses, he settled into the industry as the General Foreman of Pennsylvania’s highest award-winning landscape firm. While in Pennsylvania, he became a volunteer at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and not only did he meet his wife there, but he was introduced to habitat gardening and the use of native plants in the landscape. He now operates his own award-winning design firm (Magee Design) in the beautiful countryside of Middleburg, VA where he also enjoys kayaking and taking long walks with his wife and dog. He created and hosts the “Native Plant” podcast and hosts and produces the “Protecting what Matters” podcast in partnership with the Department of the Interior’s “National Invasive Species Council” Secretariat.
Create Helpful Habitat
Looking for a reason to get out into nature? How about making your property more wildlife-friendly by adding plants native to Virginia?
Photo: Butterfly garden, Elaine Mills
Original program date: April 22, 2020
Looking for a reason to get out into nature? How about making your property more wildlife-friendly by adding plants native to Virginia? Find out why this is important during our webinar hosted by ASNV’s Audubon at Home program. This webinar was recorded on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, and is also is in celebration of our partnership with Green Muslims during National Arab-American Heritage Month.