Please join us on Thursday, December 3rd at 7pm for our monthly meeting where Gabe Andrle from the Georgia Audubon Society will talk about how to create backyard wildlife sanctuaries. The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. Please follow this link to sign up to receive the meeting link: https://forms.gle/2sNxHYF7bFA6p26U8. More details below:

Please join us at 7pm next Thursday, November 5th for our monthly meeting where Eric Margeneau, a PhD student at West Virginia University, will talk about his research on habitat suitability of energy rights-of-way for songbird communities in the central Appalachian region. The meeting will be held virtually. To attend, please sign up to receive a zoom link using this form: https://forms.gle/TnyVAfFCMVkwxRAP8. Please see below for more details about the meeting.

Please help us by nominating K-12 Black students and/or classroom/programs in Athens-Clarke County who would benefit from receiving a set of binoculars from the Binoculars for Young Black Birders Program! This program was made possible by the generous donations from the fundraiser organized by ORAS, UGA EcoReach and Lilly Branch Audubon Society over the summer. See flyer below for more information and link to the nomination form:

The Oconee Rivers Audubon Society will be holding the Fall kick-off meeting on September 10th (note: not our typical first Thursday of the month) at 7:00pm.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the meeting will be held virtually via Zoom instead of the usual in-person meeting. 

During the meeting, ORAS members will have the opportunity to present photos and short talks about their summer birding experiences starting at 7:00pm. 

Presentation sign-up instructions:

Those who are interested in presenting at this event should sign up soon (first come basis) at http://tinyurl.com/orassep20. Each talk must be 5-10  minutes and include high quality photos. Five individuals will be able to give a presentation for this special, online September meeting. 

Viewing instructions:

For those interested in viewing the event, please check upcoming ORAS announcements and social media for further information on the presentations and on how to connect to the meeting via Zoom. 

Thanks to the generosity of our members and others from the Athens community, we reached our goal of $5,000 shortly after kickoff of the fundraiser to purchase binoculars and field guides for K-12 Black birders in Athens! We are incredibly grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and contributions. It is not too late to donate! The fundraiser is still ongoing and we have raised our goal to $15,000.

Please follow the link to the Gofundme site (https://gf.me/u/x8s2k3) to donate, or send a check, made out to Oconee Rivers Audubon Society (memo line: binocular fundraiser) to: Oconee Rivers Audubon Society, P.O. Box 81082 Athens, GA 30608. 

Thanks to Black Birders Week and some amazing efforts from a group of UGA EcoReach students in conjunction with Oconee Rivers Audubon an dLilly Branch Audubon Societies, our fundraiser to provide binoculars for young Black birders in Athens, GA is now live!

You can donate at the Gofundme site (https://gf.me/u/x8s2k3), or send a check, made out to Oconee Rivers Audubon Society (memo line: binocular fundraiser) to: Oconee Rivers Audubon Society, P.O. Box 81082 Athens, GA 30608. The goal is to raise $5,000, and Oconee Rivers Audubon has agreed to match donations up to $500. 

The June 2020 Oconee Rivers Audubon Society annual picnic will be cancelled in an effort to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community. We hope to resume monthly meetings as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. Please check back for future updates.

The Oconee Rivers Audubon Society is canceling the May monthly meeting in an effort to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community. We hope to resume monthly meetings as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. Hope everyone's staying safe!

To adhere to social distancing guidelines and help reduce the spread of Covid-19, ORAS has cancelled all bird walks and field trips through the end of April. May bird walks and field trips are currently planned to take place. However, please check back for possible further changes or cancellations.

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!