2025 Social & Silent Auction
2025-09-17 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | TriNity Brewing Co., 1466 Garden of the Gods Rd., Colorado Springs, CO, 80907, United States
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
Wild Birds Unlimited
~~~~~Ticket sales have closed for this event.~~~~~
Thank you for all of the support!
Join us on Wednesday, September 17th for our Second Annual Social & Silent Auction!
TRiNiTY Brewing: 1466 Garden of the Gods Rd., Colorado Springs, CO, 80907
6:00pm – 8:00pm
As summer comes to a close and we look forward to fall migration, we hope you will join us for an evening of food, fellowship and fundraising. 100% of funds raised will be used to support Aiken Audubon Society’s educational programs, monthly guest speakers and research grants in 2026!
Dinner will be provided by our generous event sponsor, with gluten free and vegan options available.

This is a ticketed event with limited seating. Ticket cost is $12 per person.
Tickets will be issued under the purchasers name, if you are gifting the tickets or someone will be attending in your place, please send them your confirmation email with the tickets.
Silent auction bidding will open promptly at 6:00pm, and close at 7:30pm. Online bidding will not be available; we hope you can join us!
Silent Auction Items & Many More to Come:
Falconry Experience – Broadmoor Outfitters
Birdy Gift Basket – Wild Birds Unlimited
Mosaic Class Gift Certificates – Shattered Glass Restored
Harvest Basket – Abeja Hive Honey Farm & Homestead
Restaurant Gift Cards & Glassware – Phantom Canyon
Watercolor Workshop Gift Certificate – Eric Fetsch Fine Art
“Garden Red-tail” Watercolor on Canvas – Eric Fetsch Fine Art
Full-Day Birding Trip to Rocky Mtn. National Park – Birding Man Wildlife Tours
Birding Trip to Chico Basin Ranch with John Drummond
Framed Art Piece – Little Wing Photo
Bird on Canvas – Ruben Rodriguez
Autographed Copy of “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan – Wild Birds Unlimited
Spa Gift Basket – Inspire Movements
90-Minute Massage – Inspire Movements
Leica Scope & Tripod – Aiken Audubon Society
Bird Friendly Coffee & Sibley Guide to Birds – Aiken Audubon Board Members
Bird Friendly Coffee & Great Blue Heron Tumbler – Clark Jones & Melissa Wetzig
Birdy Wine – Paula Wegert
“Landing Thrasher” Art Piece – Beth Skukrud
Bird Store Gift Cards – This Place is for the Birds
To allow guests to enjoy this social event, our monthly guest speaker presentations will resume in October.

Birds & Beans – Beginner Birding Class at Bear Creek Nature Center
2025-09-27 07:30 - 09:00 | Bear Creek Nature Center, 245 Bear Creek Rd, Colorado Springs, CO, 80906
This event is hosted by Bear Creek Nature Center and benefits the Friends of El Paso County Nature Center.
Sip your coffee and see new birds during this beginner’s birding class with Mary Rudolph, local bird enthusiast and member of Aiken Audubon! Learn the basics of birding – calls, shape and size, using your binoculars, common birds of the area, and more, all while enjoying a coffee treat on us. Binoculars and birding guides available to borrow at the front desk.
$5 per person; prepaid registration required at www.elpasocountynaturecenters.com

2025 Colorado Springs Christmas Bird Count
2025-12-20
Please join us for this year’s Colorado Springs Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 20, 2025.
Everyone is welcome to participate. Plan to spend at least the entire morning finding birds, though times will vary. Come prepared for cold temperatures and possibly snow and ice. Feeder watchers are also encouraged to sign up and participate.
We will gather for a potluck dinner, species compilation, and sharing of the day’s adventures at Bear Creek Nature Center from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. on count night.
For more information or to sign up for the count, please contact Tyler Stuart at colospringscbc@gmail.com.

Photo: Evan Barrientos/Audubon. Volunteers survey birds for the Boulder Christmas Bird Count at Teller Farm in Boulder, Colorado, on December 18, 2022. The Christmas Bird Count is a long-running, annual community science project.

Draw Pinyon Jays: Free Virtual Class
2026-04-11 14:30 - 16:00
This FREE online opportunity is not affilitaed with Aiken Audubon, but you may be interested in this bird-themed activity with a local artist! From Saraiya Kanning with Raebird Creations:
I’ve completely fallen in love with a bird most people have never heard of: the Pinyon Jay.
Over the last few months, I’ve been writing and illustrating an article for Birding magazine. In the process of interviewing 5 wildlife biologists and reading an extremely niche book on the species, I’ve learned so much.
Pinyon Jays are present in Colorado, where I grew up and now live, and where I saw my lifer in my teens. (In birding lingo, a lifer is the first time you ever see a species.) That color blue cannot be erased from memory, nor can their nasal, laughing calls. It’s wilderness distilled into one sound.
Right now Pinyon Jays are under review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for potential listing under the Endangered Species Act. Their populations have declined an estimated 80% or more since the 1960s. It’s heartbreaking.
These birds are an iconic piñon–juniper woodland species. They help keep piñon forests alive through their cyclical relationship with piñon cones. And they are sheer FUN. Chatty, gregarious, and full of personality in classic jay fashion. I simply can’t imagine the world without them.
So I invite you to a short and FREE online art workshop where we’ll celebrate these spunky, spirited birds.
You don’t need to be an “artist” (whatever that means). You don’t even need to be a birder.
Maybe you’re someone who, like me, can’t stand to watch a species fade quietly. Maybe you’re someone who doesn’t quite know what to do about this ongoing planetary disarray and habitat loss.
We won’t be numb. Instead we’ll make art and fill the world with hand-drawn Pinyon Jays. Maybe they’ll fly right off the page and repopulate the forests in droves. It’s a start, anyway. A little corner of hope we’ll make together.
We’ll be drawing inspiration from the wonderful photos of Maresa Pryor-Luzier. @mpluzier
To register, email: raebirdcreationsart@gmail.com
The workshop is limited to 100 participants. If there’s enough interest, I’ll schedule another. 💙
