“Building on the tradition of special interest in birds, Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society is organized to promote enjoyment and protection of natural environment through education, activism, and conservation of bird habitat.”
Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society hosts a Public Program Series with a featured speaker September through May on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Mayflower Congregational Church. Members, the general public and visitors to the Billings area who are interested in birds, bird habitat and conservation are invited to join us. YVAS sponsors birding field trips, ornithology classes, the Christmas Bird Count, a monthly newsletter, and various conservation and educational projects. Feel free to contact any Board or Committee member for more information.
For the latest news and updates, see the September 2024 newsletter, The Flyer.
Visit us on Facebook – the link is in the upper right-hand corner.
Join a birding trip – 2024 Bird Field Trip Schedule.
The YVAS mailing address is YVAS, PO Box 1075, Billings MT 59103.
A bird traditionally associated with the dense forests of the Northeastern U.S., Black-billed Cuckoos are hard to spot and even harder to study due to their cryptic plumage and habits. They are also a regionally rare species of conservation concern in Montana.
Anna Kurtin’s master’s thesis is focused on comparing traditional playback surveys with new technologies of acoustic monitoring and AI to determine how researchers can best monitor this species. She is also investigating what habitat they use and breed in due to the lack of habitat studies on this species in the Great Plains. Results from this project will inform statewide monitoring and species conservation.
Anna is a master’s student at The University of Montana. She grew up in Texas and went to the University of Texas at Austin, then worked for the National Park Service in Arizona before moving to Missoula to pursue a graduate degree in wildlife biology. Her research focuses on applying non-invasive methods to monitor and investigate habitat use of birds. More broadly, she is interested in how we can improve and diversify our knowledge of species of conservation concern and combine this knowledge with community engagement to better steward and protect ecosystems.
The program starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Mayflower Church. The coffee and cookie social begins at 6:30.
Upcoming YVAS Birding Field Trips 2024
Unless otherwise noted, field trips are open to the public and depart at 8:00 a.m. by car from the Rocky Mountain College parking lot on Rimrock Road next to Billings Studio Theater. Make transportation and carpooling arrangements ahead of time if possible.
September 13 – 15, Friday – Sunday, Malta and Bowdoin NWR. Stan Heath and Susan Hovde, leaders. More information to come.
Recycle Your Aluminum with YVAS and Support YVAS’ Educational Fund
Aluminum cans, old license plates, signs and other aluminum items (magnet will not attach) can be dropped off in secure bags at one of three convenient places: by the garage at 918 Avenue C or at 519 Highland Park Drive, or bring them to our Chapter Programs September through May (information above). The Education Fund supports a variety of projects – educational signs in public parks, Citizen Science Kits at the Billings Public Library and educational projects as requested. If you have a large load, call Larry (406-855-9832) and he will be happy to pick it up.
Killing of Native Migratory Birds to Save Nonnative Fish
Steve Dubois
In 2018, the US Fish Wildlife Service began issuing Osprey Depredation Permits to the Miles City Hatchery allowing them to kill native migratory Ospreys that were eating their nonnative largemouth bass. With the approval of the US Fish Wildlife Service and the Dept. of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the eastern most breeding population of Ospreys on the Yellowstone River was lethally removed by the MT Fish Wildlife & Parks’ Hatchery Division at the Miles City Hatchery in less than two years.
YVAS and others immediately protested this practice and the permit process (and continue to). Yet the Miles City Hatchery continues to apply for and receive Depredation Permits from the US Fish Wildlife Service to shoot Ospreys indiscriminately in order to protect nonnative fish.
The Hatchery’s brood stock of largemouth bass spend three summer months at the Miles City Hatchery before being hauled by trucks to the Bluewater Hatchery outside of Bridger, MT, for nine months. Due to an outbreak of invasive New Zealand mudsnails at the Bluewater Hatchery in 2021, the bass brood stock were destroyed in late 2021. In May 2022 another outbreak of the invasive snail occurred at the Bluewater Hatchery.
Still the Miles City Hatchery continues to apply for and receive Depredation Permits from the US Fish Wildlife Service to shoot native species of birds to protect nonnative fish. Great Blue Herons, Double-crested Cormorants and Canada Geese are also included in their Depredation Permits.
YVAS, Earthjustice and others are vigorously pursuing corrective measures to this lethal management of native birds a
nd misguided permit process.
For more information see:
Journal of Raptor Research – Range Contraction of an Osprey Population Following Lethal Control at a State Fish Hatchery in Montana by Dr. Marco Restani
Billings Gazette – FWP’s Bluewater Hatchery contaminated by mudsnails 2nd time in 2 years
Shooting Birds at the Miles City Hatchery (070821) and Protect The Wild Fishing Birds Of Eastern Montana (121321).
We want your photos!
[/av_section]
