Annual Spring Louisiana Bird-a-thon Fundraiser

04/21/2015

It is an exciting time here at the LSU Museum of Natural Science! Every spring we carry out our annual Louisiana Big Day fundraiser, timed to take advantage of the peak of spring migration through the Gulf Coast. This is the time of year when a large proportion of the migratory bird species of North America pass through Louisiana on their way to their breeding grounds further north. Last year’s team came five species short of beating the all time Louisiana Big Day record, with 216 species. After weeks of scouting and planning, a team of ornithology graduate students will scour the countryside for 24 hours in an attempt to see as many bird species as possible under American Birding Association Big Day rules. LSU students set that record of 221 species in 2010, and with the right combination of effort, weather, and luck, we hope we can approach or even better that record number this year!

We ask our donors, including, we hope, you, to either pledge a dollar amount for each species we see during the Big Day, make a one-time donation, or purchase an ornithology t-shirt. One hundred percent of the funds we raise with the Big Day are used to support field and lab work conducted by ornithology graduate students at the Museum. This money is incredibly helpful for us in getting newly conceived research projects off the ground, or filling in in a pinch when grant funds run low. In the last year, museum graduate students in ornithology have used Big Day funds to collect data in Borneo, Bolivia, and Peru, to buy materials to sequence DNA from specimens housed in the museum and collected in the field, and to present their research at scientific meetings.

The graduate program at the LSUMNS is widely regarded as one of the premier programs for bird study, and your donations provide vital support for the program. We hope that you will consider donating to the Big Day this year, either again or for the first time. As always, we are grateful for and inspired by your support.

To pledge a dollar amount per-species, email your dollar amount to Rafael Marcondes (rmarco3@tigers.lsu.edu) as well as your guess to the actual number of species recorded on Big Day. The closest guess will receive a free t-shirt! You will be notified of the results shortly after the Big Day. To make a one-time donation, make checks out to the LSU Foundation with “Ornithology Student Support Fund” in the memo line, and mail them to the LSU Museum of Natural Science (119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803).

In addition to checks, you can also make online donations through the LSU Foundation website<www.lsufoundation.org/givetoscience>. Please fill out the form from the link. Click on the section entitled “Click to choose a fund(s)” and a window will open. Please scroll to the bottom and choose “Other.” It will ask you to list the fund name in the comments section of the main form, so please type in Ornithological Student Support Fundas a comment. 

 

Ornithology T-shirts

photo: ornithology bird logoThis year the LSUMNS Ornithology T-shirt will feature a Black Skimmer design (shown above) drawn by LSUMNS alum Curt Burney. If you would like to purchase a t-shirt email Vivien Chua (vchua1@lsu.edu) with the amount of shirts and size(s) you want. You should receive a confirmation email. Available sizes run from XS – 3XL. Shirts are $20 (includes the cost of shipping) and you can make checks out to the LSU Foundation with “Ornithology Student Support Fund” in the memo line.

Mail checks to: LSU Museum of Natural Science 119 Foster Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Thanks for your support!