Starting in April 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, Saw Mill River Audubon began offering a Zoom interactive chat to connect the Lower Hudson regional birding community.
This Bird Chat now draws an average of 80+ birders and bird photographers of all abilities and experience levels.
In 2022 Bird Chat usually happens twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
Upcoming Bird Chat Guests
2nd & 4th Tuesday
- Tue 4/12: Learning the Birds: author visit with Susan Fox Rogers
- Tue 4/26: Dutchess County Hotspots with Waterman Bird Club birders
- Tue 5/10: Cape May Spring Watch
with Tom Reed - Tue 5/24: Gallery of Spring Warblers
with Deb Tracy-Kral
SPECIAL NOTICE:
June Bird Chats will be on 1st & 3rd Tuesdays
- Tue 6/7: Three Birding Trips
with Kara Mason - Tue 6/21: TBD
NEW IN MARCH 2022 –> Register here for the new Bird Chat Zoom link for Bird Chats through June 2022
You only need to register ONCE for Bird Chat. ** SAVE THAT PERSONALIZED LINK** in email or copy and paste into a document. The same link will work through June 2022.
By registering, you’ll get an email with the Zoom connection info right away AND you’ll also get a reminder email before each Bird Chat.
(Of course, you can unsubscribe from those reminder emails anytime, just click unsubscribe on email footer.)
- You don’t need to have a webcam — or be seen — or need to have a microphone — or be heard — to enjoy our Bird Chats
- You are welcome just to watch and listen on your computer, or even just listen by phone.
- (Although, if you connect only by phone without a computer screen, you’ll miss out on a lot of the pictures and other visuals we usually show.)
- If you have never used Zoom — that seems unlikely considering the past two years — OR if want to learn more about how to use Zoom, there is a LOT of help online. Here are helpful instructions for joining your first Zoom meeting.
What We Do
- some quick announcements from local Audubon and birding groups*
* let us know in advance if you have something you want announced. - some sighting highlights and pictures from the past couple of weeks, often drawn from eBird reports.
- a conversation guest or birding topic or birding hotspot focus for the next 30 minutes or so.
- your questions, comments, sightings and observations
Some Past Bird Chat Guests
past Bird Chat videos here
- Chris Zumwalt, Local Falconer
- Alan & Della Wells, Rockland County birders
- Don Riepe, American Littoral Society’s Jamaica Bay Program Director
- Tom Burke & Gail Benson, NYC Area Rare Bird Alert
- Sean Camillieri & Kyle Bardwell, volunteer Regional eBird Reviewers
- Charlie Roberto, Area Birder
- Kevin McGrath & Steve Rappaport, local bird photographers
- Michael Bochnik & Fran Greenberg, Hudson River Audubon of Westchester
- Sandy Morrissey, Bluebird Trails, Bronx River Sound Shore Audubon
- Joan Collins, Adirondack Avian Expeditions
- Kathryn Schneider, Author, Birding the Hudson Valley, Co-Chair, NYS Breeding Bird Atlas Steering Committee
- Barbara Mansell & Debbie van Zyl, Dutchess County birders from Waterman Bird Club
- Tait Johannson, Naturalist, Bedford Audubon Society
- Eliza Wein, Adam Vinson, NYS Young Birders Club
- Elijah Goodwin, Ph.D., Grassland Management for Birds, Rockefeller State Park Preserve & Stone Barns Fields
- Scott Craven & Larry Trachtenberg, Ossining/Croton Birding