[Community_garden] Celebrate Urban Birds!

[Lexie Stoia]

Community gardeners,
Please take a look at this information about "Celebrate Urban Birds!" May
10-13 2007-- it's a great opportunity to learn about and identify birds in
your area.

Thank you,
Lexie





 Welcome to the "Celebrate Urban Birds!" News Update.

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"Celebration" Web Site
Frequent updates are being made to the web site to include more and more fun
and informative material on the Celebration, urban conservation concerns,
ideas of ways to get involved, suggested resources, and other important
information.

Special Note: We are adding a page to the web site with a list of
organizations currently registered for "Celebrate Urban Birds!" to give
people an idea of what types of organizations will be participating. If you
do not want your organization listed, please send an email to
urbanbirds at cornell.edu

Visit us: www.urbanbirds.org/celebration

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Artist Found!
Urban Bird Studies invited individuals of all ages and backgrounds to submit
samples of their work to be considered for a "Birds in the City" poster that
will be used in "Celebrate Urban Birds!" events in cities throughout the
continent in May 2007.

We received an overwhelming response! Artists of all ages and abilities from
across the globe sent in their work for consideration. We felt privileged to
receive so many wonderful, creative submissions. It was extremely difficult
to select one from among all the top-notch entries. We have now created a
database of artists for future projects and will feature selected artists on
the Celebrate Urban Birds web site.

After much consideration we chose artist, muralist, and teacher Katie
Yamasaki from New York City. We are excited by her incredible work!  Click
here to learn more about her and see some of her artwork.

The poster will feature illustrations of  the 15 target species of birds
selected for the Celebration in a colorful urban backdrop.  It will be used
as an identification guide and educational tool.

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Workshop Held at the Lab of Ornithology in December
Educators and group leaders from around the country traveled to the "Lab of
O" to learn about, provide input on, and connect with Lab staff  on December
14th. Exciting presentations on the science behind urban greening, gardening
for the birds in cities, marketing ideas, and facilitated discussions about
regional celebration plans were included.

Participants who went on the early morning bird walk were even treated to
close views of Pileated Woodpeckers.

Presenters included Vice President for Bird Conservation for the National
Audubon Society and director of Audubon's Seabird Restoration Program,
Stephen Kress, Elissa Wolfson, editor and writer at the Cornell Plantations,
Caren Cooper, research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
at Cornell.

Gretchen Ferenz and Lisa Babcock from Cornell Cooperative Extension in New
York City also were an integral part of the day.

You can view selected workshop presentations and see some of the ideas
shared by regional partners by visiting the web site.

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Interesting Research
The Pigeon Paradox: Dependence of Global Conservation on Urban Nature by
Robert Dunn, M. Gavin, M. Sanchez, and J. Solomon.

  Dunn et al, 2006.pdf

Read an exciting article in December's issue of Conservation Biology that
discusses achieving global conservation by promoting direct experiences with
urban species. It is thought that people are more likely to become involved
in conservation action when they have direct experiences in the natural
world. 80% of people are found in cities, therefore, humans mostly
experience nature though much maligned urban species such as pigeons and
other introduced species thought of as urban pests. The paper examines the
idea that perhaps global conservation will depend more and more on people's
interactions with urban ecosystems.

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Got a great idea for "Celebrating Urban Birds?" We want to feature you!!
We are currently working on a "Featured Partner" section of the "Celebrate
Urban Birds!" web site.

Here, we'd like to include lots of real-word examples of
people/organizations devoted to conservation, particularly in urban
environments.  We want to feature the stories of partners that are engaged
in conservation activities and that plan to "Celebrate Urban Birds!" in May.

Are you interested?

If so, please send a brief statement to urbanbirds at cornell.edu. Please
highlight your organization's mission, current involvement with conservation
of birds or other urban nature, and address how you plan to integrate
"Celebrate Urban Birds!" into your programming? Also, it would be great if
you could provide a few pictures of your organization in action.

This is a great way to gain additional exposure for your organization. Along
with the story, we are happy to link to your web site and feature any other
information you would like included.

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"Celebration!" Materials
We are making great progress on the materials for the Celebration. In fact,
our selected artist, Katie Yamasaki, has already completed the design for
the "Celebration" poster. We will be sending it to press very soon.

We will continue to keep you updated on our progress and the expected date
for the release of materials. We are anticipating the materials will be
available late-March/early-April.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology will provide the following for "Celebrate
Urban Birds!" May 10-13, 2007 :
--- Bilingual Celebration Kit (includes an original poster by artist and
muralist Katie Yamasaki,  educational material about city birds and urban
greening, data forms, and flower seeds to plant in pots and gardens in
cities)
--- Bilingual Celebration web site, including information for partners and
participants, contests, educational materials, photos and links to community
partners, art connections, online data collection, and much more.
--- Bilingual Results Publication featuring summaries of data and findings,
photos, contest winners, stories, art, and more.

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Interested in other Urban Bird Studies projects? The Urban Bird Studies DVD
is a great way to learn more about our current projects!
We've had a great response to our new Urban Bird Studies' bilingual DVD.
Educators and group leaders tell us overwhelmingly that it is a wonderful
tool for introducing groups to citizen science. The bird guides have also
been invaluable. All of our introductory and instructional videos are
available on the DVD. It also features bird guides with cool facts for each
of the projects, navigation in both Spanish and English, PigeonWatch color
morph guide, and much more. Included is a handy bird identification guide of
five common city birds that you can take with you to watch birds. If you'd
like to purchase the DVD please send $5 per DVD to Urban Bird Studies, 159
Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 or email us at
urbanbirds at cornell.edu. Let us know if the cost is a hardship for you or
your program.

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Please feel free to forward this message to anyone you think would be
interested. Anyone can sign up to receive updates by registering for
"Celebrate Urban Birds!" on www.urbanbirds.org/celebration. Questions?
Please email us at urbanbirds at cornell.edu.




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