National Audubon Society

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Bringing People and Birds Closer Together

I was homesick the first summer that I went to sleepaway camp. One thing that helped me was looking up at the moon each night and knowing that my mom saw the same brilliant light that I did. I felt connected to her even though hundreds of miles separated us. Even now, I love that people all over the world experience the same phases of the moon at the same time.

Birds also connect people across long distances as their annual migrations take them on journeys that stretch for miles across multiple states, countries, and hemispheres. Now, new technologies allow us to understand birds’ travels more than ever before and make connections with people in far away lands. I’m therefore excited to announce that we have installed one new migration tool—a MOTUS Tower—at the John James Audubon Center. The tower will pick up signals from tagged birds and transmit it to the MOTUS network. We’ll be able to track migration patterns and learn how native forest and meadow restoration projects at JJAC impact the numbers and species of birds. And we’ll invite bird lovers and volunteer scientists to learn alongside our staff.

Even if you don’t live near a MOTUS tower, you can see how MOTUS data inform our understanding of migration by visiting Audubon’s Migratory Bird Explorer website.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful August and have time to step outside to admire the wondrous moon.

Best,

Suzanne

American Goldfinch. Photo: Victoria Ambrosey

Marshes for Tomorrow Field Update

As part of our ongoing Marshes for Tomorrow ecosystem restoration planning work, Audubon staff have been out in the field collecting data since spring. We are now in the final stretch of our field season in the salt marshes of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, wrapping up avian point counts, playback surveys and deployment of Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) to observe focus species of birds. To learn more about this summer’s field work and research techniques like mist-netting and bird banding, click here.

Marshes on the Eastern Shore

Marshes for Tomorrow Community Meetings

In January 2024, Audubon Mid-Atlantic and our partners met with community members in the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland to discuss the Marshes for Tomorrow project. Since then, we’ve been hard at work incorporating comments into the draft conservation and restoration plans for birds and people. We will share our progress and build on our previous discussions through a second round of meetings being held in August and September on the lower Eastern Shore. Please consider attending these meetings if you are a resident of Dorchester, Somerset or Worcester counties, or if you regularly recreate in these areas! The meetings will take place as follows:

August 20th from 5:30 until 7:30pm at the Rock Creek Church Community Hall, Somerset County

August 27th from 5:30 until 7:30pm at the Berlin Library, Worcester County

September 5th from 4:30 until 6:30pm at the Delmarva Discovery Center, Worcester County

September 7th from 2:00 until 4:00pm at the Blackwater NWR Visitor Center, Dorchester County

For more information about these community meetings and the Marshes for Tomorrow project, please visit the project website here.

Mashes for Tomorrow Meeting Schedule

MOTUS tower at the John James Audubon Center

MOTUS Tower Installed at the John James Audubon Center

A MOTUS tower was recently installed at the John James Audubon Center in southeastern Pennsylvania. A MOTUS tower uses arrays of automated radio receiver stations to detect tagged animals over vast distances. Today, thousands of receiving stations are active around the globe, capable of tracking tens of thousands of animals, from birds and bats to butterflies and bumblebees.

When a tagged bird passes by a receiving station, a computer records and stores the unique radio ID from its tag. Antennas from all around the world are connected and their information is freely available to researchers and the public at motus.org.

The information gathered from the MOTUS tower will help Audubon interpret migratory and stopover behavior in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as habitat use, recovery plans for at-risk species, and more. Financial support for our MOTUS tower was provided by The Marshall-Reynolds Foundation and individual donors. On your next visit to the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, be sure to check out the MOTUS tower and our new Migratory Bird Explorer kiosks!

MOTUS tower at the John James Audubon Center. Photo: Sydney Walsh

Environmental Victories in Pennsylvania!

In early July, Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania legislature finalized a $47 billion state budget that included many priorities for birds and the Audubon community. We send a heartfelt thanks to the more than 1,400 Audubon members who elevated our priorities with their elected officials in Harrisburg in the lead-up to the final budget. Our key wins for birds include:

An annual allocation of $50 million to the Clean Streams Fund, which will address the main sources of water pollution such as acid mine drainage & agricultural runoff and funding to plant trees along streams and in communities.
The Solar for Schools Program, allocating $25 million to help schools and other educational institutions to fund solar energy installation. This program also unlocks large amounts of federal money to support solar energy projects across the state.
$1.5 million for the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources to protect forests from the damaging spongy moth.
$11 million for the Department of Environmental Protection to cap abandoned oil and gas wells, reducing water and air pollution in bird habitat across the state.

While these are important successes for birds, our work is not done. Audubon will continue to collaborate with advocates and policymakers in Harrisburg to ensure that all of our priorities stay elevated and receive the resources they need. We will carry on promoting sustainable sources of funding for the Healthy Outdoors for All Program, full funding of the state’s share of our River Basin Commissions, a modern renewable energy standards portfolio, and a commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere through legislative or administrative action.

Eastern Bluebird. Photo: Glenda Simmons

September 29 Community Day at the John James Audubon Center

On Sunday, September 29th, 11 am to 4 pm, Audubon Mid-Atlantic will celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of the John James Audubon Center’s new visitor center as part of our annual Community Day celebration. Programs throughout the day will commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month through the lens of fall migration, highlighting the places birds are traveling to the winter and their unique ability to connect communities across the Americas. Festivities will feature cultural dances, bilingual bird tours, songbird-themed activities for kids, food trucks, local breweries, canoeing, and more. This is a free event and all are welcome!

Historic House at John James Audubon Center. Photo: Luke Franke

Save the Date for Philly Birding Weekend!

Our third annual Philly Birding Weekend will be held on October 12-13th, 2024! We are bringing back favorite birding sites from previous years such as The Woodlands and John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge as well as introducing new options such as a birding tour focused on the work of Lights Out Philly in center-city Philadelphia and a biking and birding tour taking place in Fairmount Park. Save the date for this exciting family-friendly event, and keep an eye on Audubon Mid-Atlantic's social media and emails for further information. For information on bird counts from previous years and photos of the events, visit the Philly Birding Weekend website.

Philly Birding Weekend

Upcoming Events in the Mid-Atlantic

Native Plant Workshop at the Discovery Center:
Don’t miss the Discovery Center’s native plant workshop on Saturday, August 10th from 10:00am until 12:00pm! Join Charlotte Spence from the Alliance for Watershed Education and Bria Wimberly from Audubon Mid-Atlantic to learn more about native plants that can be found at The Discovery Center as well as in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. Native plants are vital for our ecosystems and food chains, and we will take a look at habitats like our floating wetlands within the reservoir. We'll show you how to get involved, no yard needed! For more information, reach out to Charlotte at charlotte.spence@audubon.org

Birding Tour of Druid Hill Park
Join Audubon on Saturday, August 24th, from 8:00am until 9:30am for a free birding tour of Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. Druid Hill Park is Baltimore's oldest large park and is home to 745 acres of forests, fields, and a large lake. 189 species of birds have been documented here, including nesting Baltimore Orioles and Yellow-Crowned Night Herons. Audubon and Baltimore Bird Club experts will lead us in search of avian friends! For more information, visit this link on our website.

CONNECT WITH US

Audubon Mid-Atlantic
3401 Reservoir Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19121
(610) 990-3431 | audubon.org

© 2025 National Audubon Society, Inc.

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