CSUFO Journey to Trinidad

More than a dozen intrepid students and staff from Colorado State University have banded together for an expedition of biological discovery to the tropical island of Trinidad in mid-March of 2018, and we are asking for your help to make this possible.

Founded by undergraduates as CSU's premiere birding and avian ecology student organization in January of 2015, CSU Field Ornithologists offers undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty numerous opportunities to connect with other bird enthusiasts and learn about ornithology through local and inter-state birding trips, expert seminars on recent research and conservation efforts, workshops, citizen science volunteering, and more. We have fostered a passion for birds in numerous new birders and built links between CSU and the northern Colorado birding community.

CSU Field Ornithologists Website
Selected Accounts of Past CSUFO Trips

And now for the first time we are offering members of the CSU Community an incredible opportunity to experience tropical ecosystems unlike any place in Northern Colorado. Our group includes students from multiple disciplines, from freshmen to seniors, and individuals who have never had the opportunity to leave the United States. This experience will change particiants' lives, providing unique opportunities to see fabled tropical landscapes from rainforests to savannahs to Caribbean estuaries, experience Caribbean food and culture, and witness the anthropogenic influences that impact some of the most biodiverse places on our planet. 

Our initial Trinidad planning meeting--Trip Coordinator Brandon Nooner explains the proposed itinerary. 

Your donation will benefit the holistic education of CSUFO's participants and facilitate the most ambitious project of one of the most passionate, earnest, and active student organizations at our university. Our expenses include approximately $700/person for round trip airfare, $1360 for lodging at Hamgel Field Station, $1200 for a week of food for all participants, and between $1400 for transportation around the island.  This is a total cost of $1027 for each of 13 participants. We must reduce this cost considerably for the trip to be accessible to participants without stable financial situations.

Participants will contribute significantly, however the trip is only feasible with the generous donations of friends, family, and supporters of CSU Field Ornithologists' efforts to build a new generation of young Colorado birders. 

Donation Levels:
$25 -- Bronze Level: Receive a free CSUFO Sticker!
$50 -- Silver Level: Receive a free CSUFO Sticker and T-Shirt!
$75 -- Silver Extra Plus: Receive a CSUFO sticker, a T-shirt, and a Nuance Chocolate single origin bar made in Fort Collins with cacao bean exclusively from Trinidad!
$100 -- Gold Level: Receive the CSUFO Sticker, T-Shirt, the chocolate bar, and a a free copy of CSU Listening Lab Director Jacob Job's Audio CD of Serene Soundscapes from across the Western US and a CSUFO Sticker!
$150 -- Platinum Level: Receive all of the above gifts, plus a specially prepared Audio CD of recordings by Jacob Job while in Trinidad! 

Look to the bottom of this page for an in-depth decription of the soundscapes audio files offerred by Dr. Jacob Job!

CSUFO Stickers--Custom designed with our official logo!

Custom designed CSUFO T-Shirts in your size,  styles for men and women available.
$75 donations and above will receive this wonderful Trinidad Chocolate Bar!

Dr. Jacob Job, director of CSU's Listening Lab. See below for a description of the audio files he is offerring as a gift for Gold and Platinum Level Donors!

We are working hard to fundraise in other ways as well:
1. We are working as parking management at CSU football homegames. We have already invested 101 total hours, earning $1010. 
2. We are working for Ramride, a CSU service that provides students safe rides home from late nights out. We will gain at least $500 from this effort. 

Further Information about this fundraiser and this group:

Colorado State University Field Ornithologists is a registered student organization through the Registered Student Organization Office of Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement (SLiCE) at Colorado State University. We are entirely student run and directed, and all funds from this fundraising effort go into a secure club bank account. 

We are working with our advisor, Dr. Cameron Ghalambor, to ensure the highest quality and most educationally enriching experience for participants. We are working with CSU's Office of International Programs to ensure participants are safe and medically insured during the entire trip. 

Our student organization strives to provide a unique public service to members of the CSU community. Each semester we host up to three guest speakers on campus. Guest speakers are experts from the fields of ornithology, conservation, and ecology. Seminars provide CSU students irreplaceable opportunities to meet and learn from the leaders in avian ecology and conservation. Past speakers have included Brad Andres (National Coordinator of the US Shorebird Conservation Plan), Scott Rashid (Directer and Founder of Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute CARRI), Eva Mathews (Program Manager at Hog Island, National Audubon Society's Seabird Restoration Program), Christian Hagenlocher (2016 ABA Big Year Record-Breaking Birder), Scientists at Bird Conservancy of the Rockies such as Luke George and Jenny Berven, local community experts such as Dave Leatherman, Ted Floyd and Bill Schmocker, and faculty and researchers at CSU such as Cameron Ghalambor, Liba Pejchar, Chris Kozakiewicz, Maybelline Gamboa, and Andrew Bankert.

Recent Seminar by Christian Hagenlocher

Our organization's birding trips are advertised widely to the campus community, and new birders are encouraged and mentored. We offer trips from local half-day outings around Fort Collins and the northern Front Range to multi-day inter-state journeys at bargain prices so all students can participate regardless of their financial situation. Through our organization, numerous freshmen and international students have gained novel perspectives on the landscape outside of Fort Collins, allowing them to better appreciate the natural heritgae of their new home. The benefit of providing free wheels to those without their own vehicles cannot be understated.

Pointing out an American Three-Toed Woodpecker at Rocky Mountain National Park
Bird Banding at Barr Lake State Park with Meredith McBurney (Bird Conservancy of the Rockies)

Our organization is highly adept at organizing large trips. We led a group to the Central Valley of Nebraska to see Sandhill Cranes and Greater Prairie Chickens. We led a group to Bosque del Apache NWR and Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. We led a group to numerous national parks between California and Utah on an eight day camping excursion. We worked hard to fundraise so all these trips could be offerred at under $100 for each participant. We have held bake sales, run birdathon competitions, and sold immense quantities of used furniture to make these things happen. 

CSUFO Group at Bosque del Apache NWR, New Mexico

Joint Trip to Cameron Pass with Denver Field Ornithologists in search of Boreal Owl

Our group collaborates with organizations from around Northern Colorado to enhance the connection between CSU and the local community. We have collaborated with Colorado Birders' Gary Lefko on multiple educational Raptor Identification Trips, Bird Conservancy's Meredith McBurney on multiple educational trips to learn about bird banding research, and curators Garth Spellman and Jeff Stephenson at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on two educational tours of the museum ornithology collections and specimen preparation facilities. For two years in a row we brought CSU students together with birders from Denver Field Ornithologists to search for Boreal Owls on Cameron Pass.  We have collaborated with faculty in the CSU Art Department to organize a very popular bird sketching workshop for dozens of CSU students. We are currently working on establishing collaboration with Fort Collins Audubon on community bird education projects. For two years we have been running a student-powered survey of window-strike killed birds around CSU's campus, which may soon inform a new policy in Associated Students of CSU (elected student government) to reduce bird strikes at especially dangerous windows on campus.

Bird Banding with Meredith McBurney

Beginning in January of 2017, CSUFO began organizing volunteers for citizen science projects in the community. We have facillitated several students, faculty, and Fort Collins community members to become involved in Raptor Monitoring at Lory State Park for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. We organized ten students to volunteer for Bird Conservancy of the Rockies' Eastern Screech Owl Monitoring along the Poudre River. We also organized volunteers to help with the Bird Conservancy's Christmas Bird Count for Kids at Barr Lake in 2017! In total, CSUFO volunteers have contributed more than 250 hours to these efforts.
Volunteering for CPW raptor monitoring at Lory State Park


Audio CD Offerred by Dr. Jacob Job for Gold Level Donations and Above:

1.     Howling Wolves in Winter—Yellowstone National Park, WY

2.     Wetland Evening Chorus in Spring—Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

3.     Snow Melt Run-off—Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

4.     Afternoon Thunderstorm in the Mountains—Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

5.     Songbirds at Dawn along the Front Range—Coyote Ridge Natural Area, Fort Collins, CO

6.     Summer Evening Campfire and Wildlife Chorus—Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, MN

7.     Howling Coyotes and Dawn Chorus—Mesa Verde National Park, CO

8.     Fall Elk Rut and Coyote—Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

 

Sounds of nature are relaxing and enjoyable to most everyone. Hearing the howl of a wolf, the steady flow of a mountain stream, or a chorus of birds as the world awakens can bring back memories of fond experiences and make us long for our next great adventure. However, we are not always able to escape outside as often as we like. Fortunately, this digital album of nature sounds from around the country can acoustically place you in wilderness just by slipping on a pair of headphones and hitting the ‘play’ button.

This series of nature recordings will take you on a year-long acoustical adventure around the country through some of the United States’ most treasured protected lands. You’ll start by listening to howling wolves in Yellowstone National Park in January before moving up to the Pacific Northwest in April, where you’ll get to hear the sounds of eagles, owls, frogs, and songbirds come together to form an evening chorus like you’ve never experienced! Next you’ll travel to Rocky Mountain National Park in June to listen to the sound of fresh snow melt running through a mountain stream, as well as a slowly moving thunderstorm echoing through the mountains. As summer gets into full swing, you’ll wake up with songbirds along the Front Range of Colorado and go to sleep with the sounds of a campfire accompanied by a chorus of insects, frogs, owls, loons, beavers, and a different group of songbirds from the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota. Finally, you’ll move to Mesa Verde National Park in late summer, listening to a pair of coyotes howl through the night and into the morning where they are joined by a chorus of songbirds, before traveling back to and ending in Rocky Mountain National Park during the fall, listening to the sounds of the elk rut going full force right near the microphones, with bulls chasing cows, bugling, and fighting with each other, all the while joined by a calling coyote!

This series of recordings will be accompanied by a short write up for each track, including information about the time of year, location, species present, and a short description of the area and event. Audio can delivered via a digital download, a series of CDs, or both. As with all nature recordings, these are best enjoyed by wearing headphones or by sitting within a stereo arrangement of speakers.