Recently, the station on Anderson Mesa detected individual birds representing two species: a Flammulated Owl and an American White Pelican.  The station at Rancho Tres Brisas detected a Northern Shoveler. What makes these detections so meaningful is that our data regarding these individual birds are combined with the data from other stations to provide important information on the bird’s travels. The American White Pelican, for example, was tagged in July 2024 at the nesting colony on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah and detected by the Anderson Mesa station in late May 2025.  Between those dates, this individual was detected by more than a dozen sites, including one on the west coast of Mexico about 640 miles south of Anderson Mesa.  The migratory paths of these birds will inform research and conservation efforts. 

Here are a few facts about them and their journeys:

American White Pelican # 57645 was tagged by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) for the American White Pelican Tracking Project on 7/17/2024 and detected by our Anderson Mesa IBA Motus station on April 28, 2025.  It flew to us after pinging a station located on the Reserva Ecologica Bahia de Santa Maria; a station that is part of the Coastal Motus Network in Northwest Mexico. The flight from Bahia de Santa Maria to Anderson Mesa was part of its 1171 km flight past or to 16 Motus stations. Here is more info on the project description:

Project description

The American White Pelican nesting colony on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah is regularly one of the largest colonies in the Pacific Flyway. Drought and low lake levels have exposed a land bridge between the island and the mainland. This has posed conservation concerns for the colony. We have been monitoring productivity, and dispersal from the colony using bands and visual markers for resight. This project represents the first opportunity to place transmitter tags on juvenile birds. 

American White Pelican Project by UDWR

Flammulated Owl #58928 was tagged on September 4, 2024 at Spike Came - Mt tagging site near Missoula. The small owl “scarcely larger than a small juice can” was detected by our Anderson Mesa IBA station on May 4^th of 2025. Since that time, there have been no other detections of this owl. It came toward Anderson Mesa from Curlew National Grasslands flying 785 miles.

More info:

It spends its time foraging for insects near the tops of massive pine or fir trees. These aspects make it hard to spot, although its repetitive, low-pitched hoot is easier to notice. Once thought to be rare residents of mountainous pine forests, Flammulated Owls can be common in forests of large trees and are highly migratory. It winters in Mexico and Central America, but little else is known about the species in its wintering areas. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Flammulated_Owl/overview)

Northern Shoveler #57925 was tagged on July 26, 2024. It has been past or visited 12 Motus stations; including stations near the Great Salt Lake, the Salton Sea, and coastal preserves in North West Mexico.  So far, it has visited 12 stations! The furthest southern station was: Bahia Ohuira. On Friday, May 2^nd it left Buenos Aires NWR flying toward our stations and was detected on May 3^rd after having flown 321 miles at 15 km/hr.

Learn more about birding in this Joe Dana and 12 News team interview. Watch Nancy Steele NAAS President, Eric Moore of the Lookout, and Barbie Hart VVNF share updates.

Nancy Steele interview

NAAS will hold it's annual meeting to elect board members on January 29th at the Sedona Library at 6:00 pm immediately preceding the presentation.

This month's presentation is:

Birds of Costa Rica by Gerry Snyder

Last April Gerry and his wife Michelle went to Costa Rica on two birding tours then birded the country on their own. Come hear Gerry give a presentation with lots of bird pictures, some information about the birds, and a bit of travelogue. Costa Rican snacks will be served. Sedona Community Library, 3250 White Bear Rd. Sedona. Wednesday Jan. 29, 2025. 6:00pm. Sponsored by Northern AZ Audubon Society. 

Social time with snacks at 5:30 pm. Program begins at 6.

To read more about the directors up for election go here:

2025 Annual Meeting-Elections-FINAL.pdf

NAAS's two Motus stations are ready to track wildlife.  Our stations are connected with an international network that tracks more than 200 species of tagged animals including songbirds, bats, raptors, butterflies, seabirds and migrating dragonflies. Motus receiver stations situated throughout the world forward data to Birds Canada. That data is available for research and educational purposes.

On installation day, Kelly Cullen, of Niles Radio Communications, climbed down the tower, hooked up his computer to the brains of the system and waited for the test tags to ping the receivers he had just spent all day installing. The proof would be in the signal.

Several of us drove the tags some distance away while on a conference call with Kelly. We all held our breath until we heard "Yep, I got it. The big CTT tag is coming in strong."  Then he would change to a different page on the internal system and once again, we'd hold our breath to hear if the nanotag would be picked up? We actually cheered and raised our hands in joy and amazement that he was seeing the tiny tag's signature.

Later we got word from Anne Pelligrini, an Ornithologist and long-time NAAS member, that our station had been instrumental in her testing tags to make sure they were working. How exciting it was to know that we can help researchers verify that tags are working before they are placed on wildlife. And it helps us to find out how far away tags can be detected. 

Look for a ribbon-cutting event in the future. In the meantime, we'll monitoring our two stations waiting for the day that a ping comes in when a tagged bird (or other species) on the wing does a flyby!

For more information about Motus Wildlife Tracking Stations visit: https://motus.org/. 

Avian Point-Count Technicians in Four Corners National Parks

Spend your summer doing field work in the beautiful National Parks of the Southern Colorado Plateau! We are looking for field technicians to conduct breeding bird point-count surveys as part of a long-term monitoring plan for the National Parks.

PROJECT DATES: Early April – early July 2025

TRAINING: The field season will begin with a three-week intensive training period focusing on field safety and implementation of unlimited-radius point counts with distance sampling. Field crews should aim to have a good knowledge of the songs and calls of southwestern birds before the training period begins and will participate in online review sessions of bird songs prior to the in-person training period.

Read more:

SCP Point Count Technician Ad 2025 (1).pdf

Downloadable database of Bird and Pollinator friendly plants

Welcome to our database of bird and pollinator-friendly plants native to northern Arizona! Found on our Resources page or follow the link below.

It's organized by the type of plant—grass, forb, shrub and tree—and by each plant's elevational range: found only below 6,500 feet (Sedona, the Verde Valley, Winslow), found only above 6,500 feet (Flagstaff, Williams), and found both above and below 6,500 feet.  

Plants for Birds - downloadable/printable brochure and list

NAAS had 80 field trips Below the Rim (BTR) in 2024! There were 12 leaders and 733 folks attending!

Thanks to all for participating! There were many highlights, not only birds, but also butterflies. And more folks are taking pictures than ever before. To see some the highlights of these 47 events with pictures go to https://northernarizonaaudubon.org/Past-Event-Reports.

Looking for reliable volunteers for a new hummingbird banding site at Page Springs Fish Hatchery! This is a great opportunity to learn more about hummingbirds. Hilary Morejon from The International Hummingbird Society has become a permitted bander and is working with the Hummingbird Conservation Network on expanding hummingbird research in the Verde Valley. In order for this to happen, we need volunteers to help at the site. 

Contact Hillary Morejon: : hilhummingbird@gmail.com

Having been a member of the National Audubon Society for longer than she can remember and as a current member of two Audubon chapters (NAAS and Pasadena), Dr. Nancy Steele is excited to join the board of NAAS. She brings her skills from over three decades of running nonprofits and serving on nonprofit boards. She also brings her curiosity and research skills and is excited about the opportunities at NAAS to promote bird research and conservation.

Nancy is recently retired from her job as Executive Director of Friends of the Verde River, which she served from 2018 through 2023. She served as ED of Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles from 2005 – 2015, and as interim ED for two organizations from 2016 - 2018. She founded the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy in 2000 and served as its President/CEO from 2000 – 2011, and as its Director of Conservation in 2017.

NAAS is so pleased that Nancy chose our conservation organization to work with in her retirement. As we head into the age of Motus research, her knowledge and experience will be extremely valuable.

Diane Hope recently contacted our chapter to write a KNAU Earth Note on the establishment of two Motus stations by NAAS. 

Listen to learn more: KNAU Earth Note on NAAS Motus stations

NAAS can further conservation knowledge to help make stopover sites for migrating birds safer. 

Support NAAS's goal of funding these Motus stations both above the rim on Anderson Mesa and below the rim on Rancho Tres Brisas.