Below is a list of Advanced Training opportunities for the month of February. It is only a partial list and will be updated as new events are submitted for consideration.
Tuesday, February 2, 9, 16, 23
2021 Winter Beginning Birder Series 9:30am to 11:00am CST
To register, simply email arroyocoloradoaudubon@gmail.com
- February 2, 2021 – Backyard Birding – What does it take to create a birdfriendly backyard?
- February 9, 2021 – Know your Backyard Birds – Do you know how to ID birds that come to your backyard
- February 16, 2021 – Backyard Water Features – Water is one of the most important elements of a backyard habitat
- February 23, 2021 – Native Plants for Birds – The use of native plants in landscaping is a way to bring birds to your back yard
Wednesday, February 3, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
The Great Backyard Bird Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy way to participate in a community science project in your own neighborhood. This presentation will teach you all you need to know to participate in the count. Additionally, we will be learning to identify and attract common birds in the greater San Antonio area! The project is open to birders of all experience levels and ages, and you can participate from anywhere in the world – you don’t actually need a backyard! You only need to count birds for a minimum of 15 minutes from February 12-15, and report your findings online. You can read more about the Great Backyard Bird Count here: birdcount.org. We hope you will join us for this exciting community science project.
https://mitchelllake.audubon.org/events/great-backyard-bird-count
If you participate February 12 – 15
Wednesday, February 3, 2pm to 3pm
Seaside Chats: Feral Hogs and the Watershed
Texas Sea Grant presents Seaside Chats, a bi-weekly virtual conversation with Texas Sea Grant experts and guests that explores the wondrous and impactful Texas coast and marine environment. There is more to the Texas coast than meets the eye, and you can learn more about it at our Seaside Chats.
Restoring coastal habitats, planning for the next hurricane, and the cleaning up marine debris are just a few topics that we will tackle in our Seaside Chats. Join us as we take a deep dive into the successes, challenges, opportunities, and curiosities of the third coast.
Understand how the feral hog population affects our watershed streams and learn different trapping methods for feral hogs.
Register at tx.ag/SeasideChats
TMN Tuesday, February 9, 2021 12 noon to 1:30pm
Natures Best Hope by Dr. Doug Tallamy
Now that spring is almost here, it’s time to start planning for your outdoor space and how you can make a difference for the betterment of native species, healthier ecosystems, and even wildlife corridors—all in your very own backyard! There’s no better teacher to get you started than Dr. Doug Tallamy, our February featured speaker for our #TMNTuesdays series! Join us next Tuesday onFebruary 9th from 12pm – 1:30pm Central. *note that his session will extend an extra 30 minutes (at his request!) to allow for time for questions & answers!
https://tpwdevents.webex.com/tpwdevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=e92d26940248134733079b43b8328a0ca
Saturday, February 6, 16,20,27 2:30pm (15 min AT)
Estero Llano Grande Walk on the Wild Side
We’ll Walk on the Wild Side Weekly – and we’ll show you how to walk on the wild side, too, on Facebook! Just visit or like our page on Facebook and join us every Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/calendar/estero-llano-grande/weekend-wildside
Sunday, February 7, 9am to 11am CST
Intro to Birdwatching via FB
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park – Texas Parks and Wildlife. Limited to 9 people only.
Tuesday, February 9 at 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
RGV Chapter Meeting: Speaker Jace Tunnell, Nurdle Patrol – citizen science project run by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (Reserve) at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. Nurdle Patrol started in November 2018 after a large number of plastic pellets washed up on Mustang and North Padre Islands in Texas during September 2018. We are looking to gather information about where nurdles are located, remove the nurdles from the environment, and create awareness about the nurdle issue.
Monday, February 15 at 6:30 to 7:30
STB Chapter Meeting: Speaker TBD
Monday, February 15, 8pm
NOAA Planet Stewards – February Book Club meeting.
Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters
To join us, dial 866-662-7513 (toll free). Then, use the pass code: 1170791#
When Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz made a commitment to try to avoid single-use plastic a decade ago, the decision started at her bin. In the first half of 2020, a year of unexpected change, the humble bin has been in the limelight again, though for very different reasons. Aussies, their laconic sense of humor coming to the fore during the pandemic, used their weekly bin outing as an opportunity to dress up in outlandish costumes, the theory being that our bins were going out more than we were.
Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters is, at its heart, a book about how ordinary people can make extraordinary changes. It tells the story of Plastic Free July, a social phenomenon involving over 250 million people in 177 countries. Most importantly, it shows how a determined community can be a formidable force.
(Reading the book doesn’t not qualify for AT but participating in the book discussion does.)
Wednesday, February 17, 2pm – 3pm
Seaside Chats: Texas Sea Grant’s Natural Resource Specialist Morgen Ayers
Restoring coastal habitats, planning for the next hurricane, and the cleaning up marine debris are just a few topics that we will tackle in our Seaside Chats. Join us as we take a deep dive into the successes, challenges, opportunities, and curiosities of the third coast.
Water Resources Conservation – This chat will discuss residential and landowner water resource conservation practices.
Register at tx.ag/SeasideChats
Thursday, February 18
2021 Texas Waters Webinars – Texas Waters Specialist Program
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/water-education/texaswatersprogram/texaswatersspecialist
Thursday, February 18 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Arroyo Colorado Audubon Society monthly meeting. Speaker: TBD (1 hr AT)
(Credit pending on Speaker topic: https://www.facebook.com/Arroyo-Colorado-Audubon-Society-105945876118026
Thursday, February 18 @ 6:30-7:30 PM CT
Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program (MRRP) & Nurdle Patrol, with John O’Connell, Coordinator of MRRP at Texas Sea Grant. Register at
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TXPWD/bulletins/2b59233
Thursday, February 25, 7pm to 8pm Hays Chapter meeting
Walt Davis is a retired museum director who spent more than a decade building wildlife dioramas for the Dallas Museum of Natural History before becoming director of the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon. He holds a degree in zoology from the University of Texas and a master’s in wildlife science from Texas A&M. He will present on the two environmental crises bracketing the twentieth century: the “Campaign of Extinction” as the century opened, and the “Climate Crisis” as it closed. He will show how the Dallas Museum of Natural History played a role in confronting these crises.
VIA ZOOM @ 7pm
Details pending.