Sanibel Captiva Audubon Society Speaker Series

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The Sanibel Captiva Audubon Society is excited to announce the start of their mini lecture series this season on Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the Community House.

The first presenter is Alli Smith, a project coordinator with the Cornell Lab or Ornithology. Alli will be presenting about the useful birding app, eBird, how to contribute to eBird, how it works behind the scenes, and how data from eBird are used by scientists for bird conservation.

Smith is also heavily involved with Cornell’s app called Merlin Bird ID. Smith connects people to the Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID by doing talks, webinars, and other outreach activities, and assist eBird and Merlin users by managing the help desk. Alli loves supporting birders both new and experienced, and these apps are amazing tools that can help anybody learn!

Alli’s love of birds was sparked on a middle-school field trip to Cape May to see the annual spring spawning of horseshoe crabs and the shorebirds that depend on them. She attended the Young Birders Event at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 2011 and learned that there are careers that focus on bird conservation and continued on to get a BS in Wildlife Ecology to pursue the dream of working with birds. In the many jobs she has worked since graduating (with puffins, shorebirds, and owls) Smith has found the most impactful experiences to be working with participatory scientists, volunteers and birders, which is what has led her to her current role with Merlin. Birding and participatory science has an amazing and huge positive impact on conservation and our understanding of birds, and eBird and Merlin are fantastic ways to help birders of all levels connect with the birds around them.