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We believe in connecting people with nature.
Most of our programs are FREE and open to the public. Check our calendar and join the fun! Recent happenings:
April 25, 2025 - Arbor Day
A big thank you to Joel, Joan, Terry and Joyce for working the ZVAS booth at the Arbor Day Celebration in Rochester today. They engaged several hundreds school kids and got them thinking about birds, plants, the environment and how it all fits together. Photos by Joel Dunnette April 23, 2025 - Field Trip to Moon Valley WMA
This evening 13 people visited Moon Valley WMA near Genoa for birding, wildflowers, and more. It was tough to get any bird photos on a cloudy day nearing sunset. We all got good looks of a barred owl (and heard one, too). Please read the captions for more details. Thanks to Mike Degerstrom for leading and several other ZVAS board members for helping out. Bird Species: 6 Canada Goose, 2 Ring-necked Pheasant, 1 Mourning Dove, 1 Killdeer, 2 Barred Owl, 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Pileated Woodpecker,1 Northern Flicker, 1 Eastern Phoebe, 1 Blue Jay, 1 American Crow, 2 Black-capped Chickadee, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet, 1 White-breasted Nuthatch, 3 American Robin, 1 House Finch, 1 Field Sparrow, 1 Song Sparrow. 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 2 Northern Cardinal Photos by Mike Degerstrom April 23, 2025 - Monthly Program at Quarry Hill
We learned a lot at last night's program about bird banding. Terry Grier explained to our crowd of 24 that banding started in the 1890s when scientists wanted to know if it was the same birds that came back each year - and yup - it was! Since then banding has helped us all learn much more about birds and their behaviors. Terry told us how those big, brash Blue Jays become very calm when being held for banding, while Chickadees fight the process and struggle with all they've got to get free. Saw-Whet Owls are another bird that is very docile and even fun to band as they seem curious about the whole process. A lot of banding is done at Quarry Hill and their records show that the local Chickadees are frequently recaptured - one more than 20 times! Migrant birds are rarely recaptured - generally less than 3%. And while most small birds only live a few years - they once caught a banded Hairy Woodpecker that was 15 years old! Many thanks Terry for such a fun presentation! April 19, 2025 - Rochester Reservoirs Field Trip
It was bright and sunny this a morning but a cold north wind kept the 12 participants who came out for our Rochester Reservoir Field Trip bundled up. We started at 7:30am at the County 9 Marsh (not a reservoir) but always worth a stop. We saw our only Sandhill Crane of the day there. Two Great Blue Herons flew over, we heard a Sora Rail (first of year for many folks) and watched an Osprey bring nesting material to the big Cell Tower. A great start! Next we visited the Silver Creek Reservoir where highlights included 70 American White Pelicans, a great assortment of ducks, a Bonaparte's Gull and a Northern Harrier sitting in a field fairly close to the road. Then it was on to Cascade Lake Park - also not a reservoir - but another great spot for waterfowl and shorebirds. Here we found a couple Spotted Sandpipers, several Killdeer, an Eared Grebe and a Horned Grebe. There were plenty of ducks as well - but we were on the wrong side of the lake to get good looks. Right before noon we made our last stops at the East and South Kalmar Reservoirs. High water meant not many shorebirds but we were delighted to find a Rough-legged Hawk on the ground and watched as it flew up and interacted with both a Red-tailed Hawk and juvenile Bald Eagle. At each location we noted many sparrows, swallows and more (no warblers though) making a grand total of at least 62 species for the morning. Not bad! Many thanks to Mike Degerstrom for leading this trip and sharing his ID skills with us all. Photos by Sandy Hokanson Today's species list: Canada Goose, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Ring-necked, Pheasant, Mourning Dove, Sora, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Bonaparte's Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, American White Pelican, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Downy Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Horned Lark, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, European Starling, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, House Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal Zumbro Valley Audubon needs your help to pay for programs, printing brochures and outreach supplies to teach kids and adults about nature. Donate to Zumbro Valley Audubon via giveMN.org
© ZVAS 2023 - Zumbro Valley Audubon Society - PO Box 6244 - Rochester, MN 55903
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