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"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein




"Wilderness…the word suggests the past and the unknown, the womb or earth from which we all emerged. It means something lost and something still present, something remote and at the same time, intimate, something buried in our blood and nerves, something beyond us and without limit."
Edward Abbey




The Huntington Audubon Society is a chapter of the National Audubon Society serving Huntington township, Oyster Bay and many other neighboring communities...click here to see the complete list.


Our Mission: The mission of the Huntington Audubon Society is to increase community awareness about the environment and to encourage others to enjoy and protect birds and other wildlife in their natural habitats.



Huntington Audubon Hits the National News!

HAS recently made national headlines with our Save Our Raptors Campaign.  We have formed a partnership with the NYS Solid Waste groups and Audubon NY to help end the deaths of raptors at landfills and  the Associated Press picked up on the story.  Click here to read the article.




For Immediate Release - April 21, 2009

NEW YORK AUDUBON GROUPS
AND SOLID WASTE ASSOCIATIONS
TEAM UP TO PREVENT BIRDS
FROM BEING INJURED AT LANDFILLS

“Save Our Raptors” Campaign Announced

Click Here for Press Release



Attention Young Birders
Are You a Young Birder? Interested in Learning?
Starting in September, Huntington Audubon will be featuring special youth only field trips, led by members of our Youth Outreach Committee.

Our upcoming trips this fall will be to Jones Beach on September 13 and Montauk Point on November 21st. Parents are of course welcome and we do ask that you fill out a permission slip prior to the trip and send to us. Loaner binoculars are available to those without their own. See field trip page for trip details. For more information, email trickiwoo63@yahoo.com.

Download permission slip here. (PDF - 50 kb)

Limited Time Only Offer!
Complimentary HAS membership to youths between the ages of 11 and 18!
If you are between the ages of 11 and 18 and join between September 1st and December 31st you will receive a complimentary one year membership to Huntington Audubon! Membership includes open invitations to our monthly and special programs, field trips (including our all new youth only excursions!), special discounts on some events and our newsletter, The Killdeer!

Contact trickiwoo63@yahoo.com for more information.



A Bird's Eye View with Stella
Now that migration is over, field trip and fundraising busy season are over and I can sit down and relax, I have finally gotten to my next edition of A Birds Eye View. This time around I am reviewing a book that has already won many accolades and fans. This was a fascinating look into one woman's life and obsession. Please continue on for a peek into the life of Phoebe Snetsinger!

Life List by Olivia Gentile
This is the story of a woman named Phoebe Snetsinger, who, after a devastating cancer diagnosis, was determined to see as many species of birds in the world as she could. But this book is much more than just a narrative of her life. It also asks the questions: at what point does passion become obsession? At what point do we stop enjoying the experience in pursuit of the goal, and is it ever worth it to allow relationships to suffer in our quest to fulfill our dreams and passion? This book also reminds the reader that life is short and anyone of us, at any time, could suddenly be told we have only limited time left.

Phoebe was a housewife, living a life in which she felt seriously miscast. Stifled in the traditional married lifestyle of the time, she found salvation in birding. A friend brought to her attention a blackburnian warbler and from that moment on, Phoebe was hooked. This blackburnian warbler was Phoebe’s trigger bird and her eyes were opened up to a whole new world, a world to which she could escape the banality of her everyday existence. She joined local birding clubs and might have lived the rest of her life out as “just” an avid birder. However fate had a different plan for Phoebe. At the age of 49 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given just about a year to live. Click here for full review.
 



Birdathon 2009
Thank you to our donors!
Congratulations to all our winners!
Thanks to the generous support of our friends and members, we were able to raise $4,500 this year. Yes, it is almost half of what we raised last year, but in these trying times, and with a glitch occurring at the printer, we feel we did pretty well!

As always, Birdathon was a fun (and long!) day. On May 17th we started out at 6:45 AM at Alley Pond Park and finished the day up at 8:15pm at Shu Swamp. A portion of the day was rather cold, rainy and windy but despite this, our grand total for the day was 113 species. We are proud to say that the girls outlasted the boys this time around as we birded until dark! The eight locations covered were Alley Pond Park, Forest Park, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Oceanside Marine Center, Jones Beach, Stillwell Woods, Upper Francis Pond Preserve and Shu Swamp. The highlights of the day were the black necked stilt at Oceanside, a beautiful perched peregrine falcon at Jones Beach and 19 wood duck flying in for the evening at Shu Swamp!

Many thanks to the team members and sponsors of Birdathon 2009! We would like to thank our generous donors for the sponsorship and team prizes: Fiddleheads Restaurant, The Mill River Inn Restaurant (each donated a $150 gift certificate), Wild Honey Restaurant (dinner for two gift certificate), the Grand Wine Cellar in Syosset (a gift basket worth $50), Stella Miller (who added more wine to the basket, bringing its value up to $75), David Bathie (who carved a gorgeous wooden shorebird) and Ginger Mahoney (beautiful handcrafted pottery, created in her own studio, along with coffee and scones). Thanks should also go to Stella, who obtained the restaurant and wine prizes for our event.

The lucky winners of the raffle were: Debbie Martin ($500 cash), Marie Treubert (the gift card to Fiddleheads Restaurant), Laura Eaton (the gift card to Mill River Inn) and Lucille Mayer (wine gift basket).

The folks sponsoring the team members were not the only ones who had a chance to win prizes. Team members competed to see who could bring in the most donations. Ginger Mahoney came in third, but very generously withdrew from winning her own pottery(!) and so the prize went to Douglas Caracappa. Second prize was the carving and Bill Reeves was the winner in that category. He was knocked out of last year’s first place standing by Stella Miller, who won dinner for two at Wild Honey Restaurant. Stella and Bill were in fierce competition, with Bill nipping at Stella’s heels every step of the way!

A very special thanks go to Ms. Martin who will be donating the $500 back to HAS’ Youth Outreach Committee to assist in our youth outreach program! Thank you Debbie!

Everyone’s efforts were much appreciated and we look forward to Birdathon 2010.



State of the Birds
Birds are a priceless part of America’s heritage. They are beautiful, they are economically important—and they reflect the health of our environment. This State of the Birds report reveals troubling declines of bird populations during the past 40 years—a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems. At the same time, we see heartening evidence that strategic land management and conservation action can reverse declines of birds. This report calls attention to the collective efforts needed to protect nature’s resources for the benefit of people and wildlife. http://www.stateofthebirds.org for more on this report.


Check this website and your newsletters for information on all our upcoming programs. If you haven’t come to our meetings before, please consider stopping by. You will be glad you did!