Registration is now open for the Audubon Ohio State Assembly. "The Bird Conservation Event of the Year" will be held on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11 at the Holiday Inn on the Lane in Columbus. Click here to view the Assembly brochure. To download and print out a registration form , click here .

The Assembly will kick off on Friday morning, November 10, with an optional all-day outing to Ohio's famous Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area near Marion. We will have a chance to see the hawks and owls that make Killdeer a prime late fall birding habitat, as well as waterfowl completing their fall migration.

Want a shorter and less challenging outing? Then join us on Friday afternoon for an optional three-hour visit to the Whittier Peninsula in downtown Columbus. Explore the site of the future Columbus Audubon Center and observe the ongoing transformation of this brownfield area into the future "Central Park of Columbus." Listed as one of the top bird watching areas in Ohio by Jim McCormac in "Birds of Ohio," Whittier will surprise and inspire you.

Keynote speeches by Dr. Jerome Jackson and Pete Dunne on Friday and Saturday evenings will sandwich a day of workshops on Saturday, which will include a lunchtime keynote by Kenn Kaufman. We will offer workshops on a variety of topics. There will be something for everyone!

Between sessions you will be able to visit exhibits and vendors, including the traveling store of the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm. Jerome, Pete, Kenn and other presenters will be available to sell and autograph books, and you will have plenty of time to mingle and share experiences with other nature lovers.

Click here to download your registration form, and return it by October 27. The brochure includes information on overnight accommodations at the Holiday Inn if you need them. We look forward to welcoming you to Columbus in November!

The Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) is asking Audubon chapters in Ohio to sign on to a letter urging Congress to appropriate adequate funds for programs to benefit non-game wildlife, such as most migratory birds.

This fall, Congress will be working to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill making appropriations to the U.S. Departments of the Interior for fiscal year 2007. The Senate included $67.5 million in the bill for grants to state agencies, like ODW, for programs that support non-game wildlife. ODW uses its share of these funds for programs that benefit non-game migratory birds, which include most of the bird species that migrate through Ohio. The House, however, was not willing to provide this level of funding.

The Teaming With Wildlife Coalition, a group of public and private agencies like ODW and Audubon, is circulating a letter to send to Congress urging support for the Senate's level of funding. Audubon Ohio has already agreed to sign this letter, and ODW is now asking Audubon chapters in Ohio to do likewise.

If your chapter would be willing to consider signing on to this letter, please contact Kendra Wecker at ODW (Kendra.Wecker@dnr.state.oh.us or 614-265-7043). Kendra can send you a copy of the letter and answer any questions you may have about it. The deadline for signing on to the letter is Monday, September 25.

September is upon us and autumn is gaining momentum as the heat of summer slowly wanes.

In the coming weeks and months we will begin seeing an abundance of ripened berries for birds, and the onset of the transition to fall colors in foliage.

On cool autumn days sharp ears may detect the fall echo; the late season chorus of Northern Spring Peepers, which echoes their spring chorus, around ponds and other freshwater bodies throughout Ohio.

Unlike many other species of frogs, Northern Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer ) are more active during cooler temperatures that may range from approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit to about 73 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool temperatures of fall can sometimes trick peepers into thinking that it is spring and cause them to sing their repetitious "peep" call.

As winter approaches Northern Spring Peepers will seek out the shelter of hibernacula in forests and wooded areas where they may spend the winter in a frozen state. Peepers, like several other species of frogs, are capable of having almost fifty percent of their body's water frozen and can tolerate temperatures as low as 18 degrees Fahrenheit (water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit). They're capable of tolerating such cold temperatures because glucose, produced within the liver, and glycerol, a type of alcohol, protects the inside of the frog's cells and membranes from the formation of ice crystals which might damage cells. This frozen state is so complete that their hearts even stop beating.

As you explore your backyard and the wooded areas around your home and neighborhood listen for the fall echo of the Northern Spring Peeper; the knell of the changing seasons ahead.

[Information for this article was provided by Bill Thompson, III, Editor of Bird Watcher's Digest]

Ora Anderson of Athens died on Wednesday, August 16. Ora was a long-time member and leader of Audubon, and one of Ohio's great conservationists.

Ora was 94 and had lived an amazingly rich and productive life. He was a founder of The Dairy Barn , southeastern Ohio's premier venue for Appalachian art. He was an accomplished woodsman, author, speaker, and carver of birds. His conservation efforts in Ohio were acknowledged by the naming of a state nature preserve in his honor.

Ora grew up on a hillside farm in Kentucky but moved to Ohio during the Great Depression, and to the Athens, Ohio area in the 1950s. During his early years in the state, as a young newspaper reporter, he wrote stories on the creation of the Wayne National Forest. In those days, most of southeastern and southern Ohio was so denuded of trees that it looked like a moonscape. In the award-winning documentary film "A Forest Returns " by Jean Andrews, Ora's memories and experiences of the Wayne's creation and the amazing recovery of the woodlands were the focal point. Imagine watching a landscape renew itself from degraded clear cut to deep, climax woods in your own lifetime.

Over the years, Ora wrote many articles for Bird Watcher's Digest. Last winter, Jean Andrews approached BWD about compiling Ora's many essays and poems into a book. The magazine staff loved the idea and proceeded to make arrangements with Ohio University Press to publish Ora's book, Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher's Year . BWD's Managing Editor Deborah Griffith to the lead in selecting and editing the material. Julie Zickefoose donated her artwork. Jean kept all wheels moving on the project with the good folks at OU Press. It's going to be a delightful book to read and to savor. The book will be published next spring.

As students prepare to head back to school, the National Audubon Society is preparing for its 22nd season of Audubon Adventures, an acclaimed environmental education program for elementary classrooms. Audubon Adventures helps teachers make learning about science and nature part of students' everyday lives - integrating reading with science and other core disciplines, the program meets national science and language arts standards, and is geared towards grades 3 through 6. In addition, educators in non-formal settings (youth clubs, park districts, after school programs, scouts, and nature centers) are using Audubon Adventures to meet their specific needs.

This year, Audubon Adventures is focusing on four compelling topics: Home is Where the Nest is, The Buzz about Native Bees, Bats: Mammals on the Wing, and Wild About Birds, featuring The Legacy of John James Audubon. Audubon invites elementary school teachers around the country to engage students' curiosity about the natural world by bringing science to life in the classroom with Audubon Adventures . Each issue is full of facts, activities, and action tips that connect nature with science, reading, and art, and also inspire and empower kids to care for nature in their daily lives.

For $38.50 (plus handling fees), an entire classroom can be enrolled in Audubon Adventures , and the classroom kit equipped for 32 students. An individual kit is also available, which is appropriate for home-schooled students, for $19.00. Each of the kits will include:

- Audubon Adventures , the acclaimed environmental education publication (4 different editions, enough for 32 students-an individual kit will have one of each of the 4 editions).

- Invitation to a Healthy Schoolyard , a poster that links up with web-based content that introduces Audubon's new science-based program to help schools take action to make their school or community healthier for people and birds.

- Student assessment tools (these are built into the Classroom Resource Manual)

- Guidelines for using Audubon Adventures with youth clubs and after-school programs. (Available free upon request.)

- Detailed alignment of printed content to national learning standards in language arts and science, and to state standards for selected states*

- Great Backyard Bird Count Getting Started CD - February 2007. (Available free upon request.)

Audubon Adventures has been a favorite and effective education resource for teachers and students for more than 20 years. In 2004, the National Environmental Education Training Foundation named Audubon Adventures "among the top ten most popular and most widely used programs in K-12 schools". Each year nearly 175,000 students read Audubon Adventures publications and participate in their hands-on activities to learn about birds, wildlife, and habitat.

For additional information or to request a sample Audubon Adventures kit, please contact Elaine O'Sullivan at education@audubon.org or by phone at 1-800-813-5037. You can also visit Audubon Adventures website at http://www.audubon.org/educate/aa/ .

After a summertime lull, members have begun to send us their WOW! Moments again. Here's one that we recently received:

This evening as I was standing at our kitchen sink observing some American Goldfinches chowing down on some of our zinnias, I was treated to a delightful surprise: A Yellow-throated Warbler landed on the window sill, cocked his head, and regarded me. We were separated by 18" and a windowpane, so no binoculars were needed this time--no need to track him down as he hopped from limb to limb on a distant sycamore. A great experience! Barry Stevenson, Brown County

C'mon, folks, don't be shy! Send us your WOW! Moment - we know you've got one! To do so, please visit our web page and click on WOW! Moment. We hope to hear from you soon.

[The following is the final article submitted by our summer intern, Stephanie Day]

Summer is coming to an end and so is my internship. The past three months have been very influential and I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to work for Audubon Ohio. I've met amazing people who advocate Audubon Ohio's cause and it gives me hope for the future of the environment.

I believe that the outreach that occurred this summer opened eyes and educated a public that was previously unaware of pressing conservation issues. I also know for a fact that no other state has an outreach program comparable to Audubon Ohio's and it's an honor to have had the experience of working with such a reputable group to make history and be a leader for other Audubon societies.

Reaching out to young and old in order to expand Audubon Ohio's target audiences has been wonderful. It is surprising how many people feel that there are problems within our environment and want to show their support to find a solution. Teens and senior citizens alike have shown their interest in a variety of conservation issues, which proves that we're not alone in our beliefs and that change does need to occur.

I encourage you to continue to show your support and get involved in upcoming outreach programs. We've already started booking events for next summer and should have many opportunities for you to volunteer.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife's District Three Office in Akron will host the 19th annual conference of the Ohio Bluebird Society (OBS) on Saturday, September 30th.

The day's program, open to the general public, will include presentations covering such topics as the return of the peregrine falcon to Northern Ohio, Eastern bluebird management at Holden Arboretum, choosing native plants for bluebirds and more. In addition to the presentations the conference will offer interesting displays and exhibits. A fundraiser will be held at the end of the day and will feature many items of interest to bird enthusiasts.

The conference is co-sponsored by OBS and the ODNR Division of Wildlife. Registration is $20 and those interested in a boxed lunch must include an additional $10. To register, please mail a check to Mary Ellen Bolt, 1515 Crosswind Court, Wooster, OH 44691 (make check out to the Ohio Bluebird Society). For more information contact Mary Ellen Bolt at mailto:mellen@sssnet.com or call (330) 262-0448. Space is limited so interested participants are encouraged to register early. To learn more about the Ohio Bluebird Society go to www.ohiobluebirdsociety.org or e-mail the OBS at mailto:ohiobluebird@acninc.net