Posts Tagged ‘Education’
Monthly Program: Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay with author Julie Zickefoose
Naturalist/artist/writer Julie Zickefoose thinks of herself as an unsung, minor, rather dirty superhero. Her superpower— saving small, economically worthless wildlife that would otherwise perish. An orphaned jay named Jemima was one such foundling. Spending nearly a year healing, studying, and raising the young blue jay for release opened the door to their world for Julie.…
Read MoreHe May Not Be Pavarotti, But…
Anyone who enjoys bird song dreads summer’s end as a bit of an auditory desert. But if you live near California Thrashers, you can take heart. These songsters will actually begin ramping up their voices again in late August. Slightly larger than a California Scrub-Jay, a California Thrasher features a long, heavy, and distinctly…
Read MoreSaving America’s Wild Birds (David Younkman) – Monthly General Meeting
The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a leading bird conservation organization that works throughout the Western Hemisphere to protect rare and endangered bird species, conserve habitat, and address threats that affect all birds. Across the Americas, more than 500 native bird species are threatened with extinction — 12 percent of 4,230 species. In the United…
Read MoreIt Takes a Village: San Diego’s Acorn Woodpecker
In the 1920s, an American ornithologist called this bird “our native aristocrat—unruffled by the operations of the human plebs…” In that same decade, an avian researcher proclaimed that these birds practiced communism. More recently, their social behavior has been likened to a noisy avian Keystone Cops routine, featuring loud calling, bobbing, wing displaying, and jockeying…
Read MoreMosquito Education Presentation
A Bird For All Seasons – The Western Meadowlark
While scouting the Great Falls Portage along the Missouri River in 1805, Merriweather Lewis heard an unexpected vocal fanfare from an otherwise familiar bird from the East—a bird then called the “oldfield lark” and now known as the Eastern Meadowlark. Studying it closely, though, Lewis noted a differently shaped tail; a longer, more curved beak;…
Read MoreThe Song Sparrow – San Diego’s Reliable Crooner
Outdoors on late summer mornings, I strain to catch any hint of bird song. For those who relish the avian breeding season symphony, the end of summer represents a bit of an auditory desert. As breeding season wraps up, with no need to attract mates or defend territories, the birds quit singing. Some even head…
Read MorePAS FOURTH ANNUAL BIRD CLASS
Palomar Audubon Society is again offering bird classes on consecutive Tuesday evenings beginning Tuesday April 24th. The first three classes will be for beginners and the last three (starting Tuesday May 15th) will be for intermediate birders. The classes will be integrated for beginners taking both classes. There will be three Saturday field trips, May…
Read MoreA Little Respect
San Diego County’s majestic natives aren’t feeling the love. Golden eagles require large territories and more than a little privacy to thrive. When not nesting on a preferred cliff, they are usually resting high on treetops or hunting in chaparral, grassland, and safe scrub communities — land increasingly taken over by development. Unfortunately, this native…
Read MoreOverdue Credit to a Frequent Flyer
North American folklore has touted the American Robin as the harbinger of spring. Me—not so much. For me, that honor goes to the Mourning Dove and its soft song drifting through the air beginning early in the new year. A Mourning Dove is a medium-sized, streamlined bird with an almost ridiculously small head; a long,…
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