Date: 2/21/26 10:45 am From: Jennifer Outlaw Coulson via groups.io <jenniferocoulson...> Subject: [labird] David Muth's Fifty Years of Louisiana Bird Life - Tuesday in New Orleans
Dear LABIRD,
Orleans Audubon Society's monthly programs are free and open to the public.
Please share this announcement with anyone who might be interested:
*Fifty Years of Change in Louisiana’s Bird life*
*Speaker: David Muth*
*Tuesday, February 24, 2026*
*6:30 p.m. social, 7:00 p.m. program*
*Community Church Unitarian Universalist, 6690 Fleur de Lis (Lakeview)*
The last major book on Louisiana’s birds was published in 1974. In the 50+
years since, our state’s birdlife has undergone profound change. For one
thing, the list of species known from the state has grown by nearly 90
species, a pace that ensures that Louisiana will become one of the few
states with over 500 species on our list. But we have also witnessed
profound changes in bird populations. For our common migrants and residents
this has mostly been negative, part of a depressing national trend. But we
are also seeing explosions in populations of many species that were at a
low point 50 years ago, but that are rebounding from the effects of
pesticides and persecution. And we are also seeing southern species that
were rare or unknown now occupying the state, presumably as a result of a
warming planet and doubtless other factors not fully understood. A birder
whose time afield roughly overlaps that fifty years surveys the changes,
and relates a few birding stories in the process.
David Muth joined the National Wildlife Federation at the beginning of 2011
after working for the National Park Service at Jean Lafitte National
Historical Park and Preserve since 1980. At Jean Lafitte, he managed the
park’s natural and cultural resources, including the Barataria Preserve, a
wetland in the upper basin on the outskirts of New Orleans that Congress
set aside as a representative example of the delta ecosystem. A native of
New Orleans, David has had a lifelong love of the delta, including its
landscapes, history, culture, and wildlife. He is an avid birder and has
served as past President of the Louisiana Ornithological Society, an
officer of Orleans Audubon Society, an advisor to Woodlands Trail and Park,
and a regional editor covering Louisiana for North American Birds, a
journal covering bird sightings and distribution.
=======================================================================
Wendy Rihner will also hold a *NATIVE PLANT SALE* at the meeting on Tuesday!
Available for sale:
Clasping Coneflower
Mississippi Penstemon
Yellow Yarrow
=======================================================================
Jennifer Coulson
President
Orleans Audubon Society
