New Hope Bird Alliance

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New Hope Bird Alliance

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Formerly known as New Hope Audubon Society (prior to May 2, 2024). We are the local Audubon Chapter for Orange, Durham, and Chatham Counties in North Carolina.

10/19/2026

It's Native Plants Week - If you want to help birds - every week is native plants week.

October 19-25 is North Carolina Native Plants Week.

New Hope Bird Alliance has been deeply engaged in this work, from lobbying for better native plants regulations to creating bird-friendly landscape manuals and yard certification programs.

Please send a comment to Chapel Hill Town Council promoting native plants in all new developments: [email protected]

1) 100% Native Trees and 70% other native plantings: Native plants are vital to insects, birds, and other wildlife. Although native tree percentages have increased, local nurseries consulted by New Hope Bird Alliance confirm that 100% native tree canopy is achievable in local developments. Requiring native plants will help our local nurseries and agricultural owners. Planted trees on a development should be 100% native to either the NC Piedmont area or secondarily native to North Carolina. Plantings of shrubs, perennial and grasses should be 70% native to the Piedmont. Language “adapted species” which means not native species should be dropped from LUMO.
2) Tree Canopy Coverage Standards: Everyone in Chapel Hill should have access to tree coverage on their properties, especially as we face climate issues. The purpose found in the LUMO is: to preserve and maintain tree canopy to protect the public health, safety, and welfare; to promote shade and heat mitigation; and enhance the quality of life in Chapel Hill. There should be no exceptions to requirements for tree canopy, and the least affordable units deserve trees just as the much as others in our community. Council should drop the exemptions for all residential units and also Light Industrial Districts which could become heat islands without trees for shade.

09/30/2026

We had 4 great swift nights out thanks to the wonderful Chimney Swifts that are roosting at a number of locations. Many thanks to UNC Avian Society for hosting twice at the Davie Poplar tree on UNC campus, Durham Hotel rooftop bar and the Velvet Hippo Bar in Durham. The swifts were the show and they performed well. Through our outreach efforts we have found some new swift roosts this year - new to us not the swifts. Swifts should be around through mid-October so there is still time to see them at any of these locations -usually a little after sunset.

09/09/2026

Great Swift Night out at Davie poplar tree on UNC campus. UNC Avian Society co-hosted with NHBA. Close to 2000 swifts made the show exceptional along with a great crowd.

Next event at Davie Poplar will be September 28. Swifts will be showing up nightly through mid-October.

08/27/2026

Chimney Swifts: Providing Inspiration, Adopt a Chimney and Swift Night Out Events:

A local artist, Susan Brubaker Knapp (susanbrubakerknapp.com), was inspired by seeing Chimney Swifts roost in the historic Davie Poplar on UNC’s campus last year and created a beautiful art quilt, Plight of the Swifts (51 inch square). The quilt celebrates swifts’ distinctive lives on the wing, their migration, and their communal roosting. It also reflects how swifts’ lives became intertwined with humans when the loss of old-growth forests led them to nest and roost in chimneys.

Help Support Chimney Swifts: Adopt a Chimney This Fall!
Have you witnessed the awe-inspiring event of hundreds of chimney swifts entering or exiting a chimney? This year, we are looking for volunteers to adopt a chimney and count swifts to help monitor this declining species. Pick your site, choose morning or evening counts, and visit when the weather is good. No experience required! Sign up to adopt a chimney: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5eEqEMqcws0DYPDhE_g2Nkvjx8sEwbTfuKiaFaclowb9scQ/viewform

Attend one of our 4 Chimney Swift Night Out events:

1) Davie Poplar Tree cohosted with UNC Avian Society - UNC Campus near Alumni Hall - September 8 and September 28 at 7pm
2) Durham Hotel (Roof) September 22, 6:30pm address - (315 E Chapel Hill Street, Durham)
3) Velvet Hippo - September 29 at 7pm (119 W Orange Street, third floor, Durham)

08/14/2026

The New Hope Bird Alliance's annual opening program meeting is coming up very soon - Thursday, September 3, at the auditorium in the North Carolina Botanical Garden. As is tradition, the topic will be photographs by our members of birds they've seen. If you'd like to share your photos, you can mail them to Ross McKinney at remckjr at gmail.com. The starting time will be 6 PM, and it's a potluck. Please bring a dish if you can, and include a label with any ingredients people should know about. We're going to try to save trees and avoid plastic, so please bring plates, cups, and utensils with you.

08/12/2026

Speak for Birds in Chapel Hill: Provide Feedback on Draft Land Use Plan

The Town of Chapel Hill has released a draft of its updated land use rules and needs to hear from community members like you!

The draft ordinance is a comprehensive rewrite of the regulations that guide how and where growth happens in Chapel Hill—this is our chance to ensure bird-friendly policies are included.

Currently, the draft emphasizes increased density without sufficient environmental safeguards like tree canopy protection or storm water runoff controls. Without stronger protections, these changes will increase flooding, intensify heat impacts, and contribute to the loss of birds, pollinators, and the habitats they depend on.

Please sign up to attend one of the open houses
scheduled for the public at the Chapel Hill Library AND submit comments on the ordinance page or email them to the town council at [email protected]

August 17 and September 10
12 - 2 p.m. or 6 - 7:30 p.m.

More information can be found here: https://engage.chapelhillnc.gov/re-writing-our-rules-lumo-update

Thank you!
Barbara Driscoll
Conservation Committee Co-chair
New Hope Bird Alliance

07/16/2026

New Hope Bird Alliance's Motus tower is up and working at Triangle Land Conservancy's Brumley North preserve. Many thanks to Garrett Rhyne from American Bird Conservancy who provided the equipment, knowledge and installation for the motus tower. TLC for providing the location (Thank you Bo Howes) and staff assistance. NHBA Conservation volunteer, Jonathan Schoolar, coordinated getting the pole installed and helped with installation. Nick Adams and Luke Whiteside with TLC were instrumental in helping with the pole installation and getting the necessary lift to the location, as well as prepping the site which is near the silo. It has been an overall team effort. Thank you to all our supporters who made this possible. We were also thankful that Monday was cooler and cloudy.

Motus (Latin for “movement”) is a wildlife tracking network using automated radio telemetry. The Motus network has spread quickly because it allows radio tags, which weigh as little as one-tenth of a gram, to be used. These tiny tags can be attached to insects or small birds. The tags can transmit real time data to receiving locations which allows researchers to gather data without having to recapture birds or anything being tracked. NHBA is looking forward to partnering with researchers on projects that use tags. This station will also pick up transmitted signals from any bird, bat or insect which passes within a few miles of the antennae. Stay tuned for more news in the fall after migration.

06/09/2026

NHBA had a great time at a recent Master Naturalist Class. Karen Stine provided information about all things bird. Tom and Barbara Driscoll and MN candidates Jennifer Maher and Mary Abrams helped show students how to use binoculars and Merlin. It was a lot of fund despite the heat. A number of Master Naturalists have volunteered or created projects with NHBA - check here for those projects: https://ncmasternaturalists.org/impact-projects/ They will soon be accepting applications for the 2027 class.

04/28/2026

Please join us for this webinar on toxic free ways to address mosquitos where you live.

04/24/2026

New Hope Bird Alliance's Birdathon is off to a great start. Check it out at: https://charity.pledgeit.org/newhopebirdathon. We have other wonderful news. Purple Matin monitoring at Patterson Place revealed 2 new eggs. All 14 nests have material in them and leaves. Hopefully if we get a little rain there will be more insects and more chicks this year.

Address

PO Box 2693
Chapel Hill, NC
27515

Website

http://www.newhopeaudubon.org/

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