This year, our birding marathon is bigger than ever. We have 13 Nature Reserves now, and our team of expert birders are going to go out on May 22 to try to find as many species of birds as we can in 24 hours. This means going out before dawn, and staying out past dusk. It means having strategies for finding elusive or secretive birds that we know may only reside at one or two of our properties, and making sure we are in the right place at the right time. We have 1267 acres to cover! With lots of coffee, keen eyes, attentive ears, good weather, and good luck, we hope to find well over 100 different species of birds on our NLT reserves, all in one day. Click here to donate!

The NLT Birding Marathon is dedicated to the memory of Norma Wallace, an avid birder and Northumberland Land Trust Supporter. We will think of her as we head out into the early morning on May 22, listening for our first bird of the day.

Our team is being assembled right now - with some veterans as well as some new additions. Here’s who we have on our birding team so far:

Roger Frost, Baxter Naday, Ben Walters, Paulette Hebert, Taylor Brown, Andrea Kingsley, Leslie Abram, Doug McRae, David Geale, Kurt Appleman, Jamie Inglis

Here’s how you can get involved and help us out:

1. When you donate you can take a guess at how many species of birds our team can find in 24 hours! Whoever is closest to the actual number will win a litre of maple syrup from the Wilkinson Nature Reserve.
2. Donors of $100.00 or more will be invited to a private birding tour with some of our expert birders at Lone Pine Marsh Nature Reserve on May 28

The Birding Marathon is one of our main fundraisers each year. All donations go towards stewardship and maintenance of our 13 Nature Reserves. This could be building and installing bird houses, invasive plant removal, trail maintenance, signage, wildflower planting, or one of many other improvement projects.