Puget Sound Estuarium recently teamed up with the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences to collaborate on a new Birds Exhibit at the Estuarium as well as our new education program, Bird Walks, monthly Olympia area birding tours led by Estuarium Educators.

Our first Bird Walk will launch later this month, but before that happens we will be featuring a Discovery Speaker Series with Maddy Jordan, Alison Horn, Noah Bloxton and Lena Vannice of the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. These fantastic, motivated students conducted a study of locally rare birds, their habitats, current threats to each species and what is being done to protect rare birds of the South Sound. They worked directly with Estuarium staff to help us incorporate their research into a new Birds Exhibit and they created a Rare Birds of Thurston County brochure that we will provide to community members who participate in our monthly Bird Walk tours.