Birding Basics is Back!
Autumnal avian activities are again upon us. The western kingbirds that nest near the library every summer have successfully fledged another brood. Reports are coming in of upland sandpipers heading south en masse over western Kansas. The Lawrence Bird Alliance sent out the alert that my favorite new tradition is about to happen again — an evening of popsicles and watching scores of chimney swifts funnel into the big chimney, opens a new window at the old Sunrise Garden Project location at 15th and New York. This year it's on August 12, at 8:30 PM. And the always anticipated August flush of migrating ruby-throated hummingbirds is starting. It's the season when I can't help but make plans to visit Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira, two of the most important bird migration stopover sites in the country, smack in the middle of Kansas. Alas, I don't actually make it out there as often as I’d like.
Speaking of hotspots, the library just received the new edition of The Guide to Kansas Birds and Birding Hotspots, by Pete Janzen and Bob Gress. Whether or not you know the old one, check this one out, even if it's just for the amazing photos. But there's much more than that. There are more birds described, and four times as many hotspots listed as in the first edition — which speaks well for Kansas, for all the new birders, and for our collective desire/need to get out there and explore (and, as the authors describe, it also speaks well for the explosion of interest in birding apps).
The Guide to Kansas Birds and Birding Hotspots
LPL is here to help you find your feathered friends. It's been eight years since our first Birding Basics series, so, like Janzen and Gress, we decided to do another one — and it starts soon, opens a new window!
Birding Backpacks and Upcoming Avian Events
Audubon of Kansas Bird Watching Backpack
This seems like a good place to mention a gift to Lawrence Public Library from Audubon of Kansas and the Lawrence Bird Alliance: We now have three Beginner Birding backpacks for checkout, especially useful for kids and families. Each sturdy backpack includes field guides and naturalist pamphlets, a laminated guide to Douglas County birding, binoculars two kids and one adult, and LBA's most recent birding newsletter. Checkouts are for 28 days.
On Saturday, August 9, Kelly Barth and the Lawrence Bird Alliance will start the series off with an introduction to backyard birding, focusing on attracting birds to your yard, feeding and watering them, planting for them, and figuring out who your winged visitors might be. On the 23rd, opens a new window, Roger Boyd will continue the yard bird discussion, expanding on bird ID with field guides, range maps, birding by ear, apps, binoculars, and more.
Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees & Butterflies
On September 6, opens a new window, KU researcher Amanda Sommers will present on the shockingly intelligent and mysterious birds that have captured the imagination of many — corvids. Along with some ornithological show-and-tell, she'll bring a raven (and a crow if we're lucky) to the library auditorium, where it will speak about its feathered brethren.
Not really, but you never know with corvids.
Jackie Augustine, Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas, will be here on September 20, opens a new window to talk about migration, and how you can help the more than 350 species of birds that pass through Kansas every year. Flyover Country indeed. Did you know that most migrating birds travel at night, and that they have different calls when they do? You can track them online using BirdCast, opens a new window, and with patience and some binoculars, you can even watch them pass in front of a full moon! That’s September 7 and October 6, in case you’re wondering.
Last but certainly not least, KU ornithologists and birding brothers Mark Robbins and Town Peterson will present on "The State of Kansas Birds" on September 27, opens a new window. Bird numbers are declining nearly everywhere, but why? Does that include all species? What can we do? In this extensive and sobering talk, they'll focus on Kansas birds, especially Flint Hills prairie chickens.
Please join us and the national avian murmuration. As birder and bird artist extraordinaire David Sibley says in What It's Like to Be a Bird, "To get started in birding, all you need is curiosity."
—Jake Vail is an Information Services Assistant at Lawrence Public Library.
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