After work, I drove to the meeting of the Prairie and Timbers Audubon Society,. I turned off into a parking lot when traffic got snarled, and cars in front of me were doing so. Rather than ignobly cutting the corner, though, I was able to stop at a Chipotle restaurant for dinner.
Roughly 40 to 50 people attended the meeting. The classroom portion of the session, led by Gailon Brehm, covered forest birds. Two speakers spoke during the presentation part of the meeting. The first was an impressive 17-year-old woman who built Prothonotary Warbler boxes as her Girl Scout Gold Award project. She wisely bought the materials to build 12, sold nearly half of those in the Heard Natural Science Center gift shop, and put the remainder up for birds to use. As a result, some 3 years later, the boxes generated 20 new birds for a species that has suffered dramatic population decline. She was, to use a single word, great.
The second speaker told us about leading a group to Alaska. I liked this talk as well, as he had great pictures and it looked like fun. But I lack much desire to take a 2-week vacation of flying and driving all over a massive state. I am much more a "go to Anchorage and walk and tour nearby" type, even though that would mean missing some birds and missing some great national parks. The 17-year-old asked the best question, as to whether birds are active during endless daylight. Apparently, with some diurnal variation, they are, which would make sighting them easier.
Tomorrow or today a rainy cold front moves in for Thanksgiving.
from Dreamwidth, because two posts of the same text are twice as nice