Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) are an important game species throughout their range. Recently, declines in productivity have been reported throughout the Southeast, which is believed to be related to reduced reproductive success via reductions in nest and brood success. These declines warrant research on aspects of female reproductive ecology, such as movement, survival, and habitat selection.

Please join ORAS for our monthly meeting where UGA PhD student Kristen Lear (Integrative Conservation program and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources) will discuss the importance of bats at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 7th, at Sandy Creek Nature Center. See below for details.

Catie Welch is the president of the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society and Research Technician at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and the USDA’s Exotic and Emerging Avian Viral Disease Research Unit. She will discuss viruses, such as the Newcastle disease virus, and birds at the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society'snext monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 3rd, at Sandy Creek Nature Center.

Athen’s based lifelong birder and former president of the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society will discuss the history of the Christmas Bird Count at the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society's next monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, December 6th, at Sandy Creek Nature Center. Please see below for more details.

Please join us for our monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 1st, at Sandy Creek Nature Center! We will be hosting photojournalist André Gallant who will describe oysters, aquaculture and the stories of watermen on the Georgia coast.

Please join the ACC Solid Waste Department/Recycling Division, Bear Hollow Zoo, and the Oconee River Audubon Society as they celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day on Saturday, October 13th, 2018 from 8:00 AM  - 12:00 PM at the ACC Landfill. 

The Oconee Audubon Society will be hosting Andrew Saunders, sustainability officer from Athens-Clarke County Sustainability Office for its montly meeting in October. The meeting will be held at 7 pm on Thursday, October 4th at Sandy Creek Nature Center, 205 Old Commerce Road.

Among other activities, the sustainability office has led the charge on solar development, energy sustainability and the protection of greenspaces in Athens. To be successful, these efforts involve collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including private landowners, local non-profits and government agencies. Andrew Saunders will describe what it takes to implement these initiatives and the importance of the office of sustainability to Athens-Clarke County residents.

Please join us for our September kick-off meeting on Thursday, September 6th, 2018 at 6:30pm in the Ecology auditorium at the Odum School of Ecology at UGA (140 E Green St., Athens, GA).

The meeting will feature speakers Tim Keyes (Georgia Department of Natural Resources) and Abby Sterling (Manomet) whose talk will be on "Shorebirds and the Importance of Georgia's Coast". 

Wine and cheese social and silent auction will start at 6:30pm followed by the talk at 7pm.

Please join us for our May monthly meeting on Thursday, May 3rd at Sandy Creek Nature Center. We will begin at 7:00 pm with refreshments and snnouncements and then have the chance to learn about the conservation of Right Whales. Hans Neuhauser, former chair of the Northern Right Whale Recovery Team and Retired Executive Director

Georgia Land Conservation Center, will present "Is the North Atlantic Right Whale a Canary in the Mine?". See below for more information.