Bird Walk at Lakeside

Can you believe it? I left my binoculars at the cottage! Oh well, it was still a great event. Our leader: "Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 667 and 669. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since."

What I knew about birds could be written on my little fingernail, so I'm a whole lot smarter than I was at 7:30 a.m. We saw sea gulls, of course, which Bill told us are misnamed--they live mainly on lakes, and he told us the many names; a Caspian Tern, which lives all over the world but is named for the Caspian Sea; a male House Finch, a descendant of the 40 some that were illegally let loose in NYC and are now everywhere in the US and southern Canada; a Cormorant; Great Blue Heron; a Grackle and Starling; some Bank Swallows lined up on a wire; and finally, we gathered around our 5 Purple Martin houses, one of which had been invaded by a sparrow family. Bill told us funny stories about Purple Martin "landlords" which are a special class of bird watchers.

Now this is the way to see a bird!
She's been on lots of bird events
The Midwest Birding Symposium will be at Lakeside, September 17-20 with wonderful programs and performances by leading bird watchers, vendors, a boat cruise and other fun stuff. There will even be events for beginners like me, like a "bird sit." Based on the vast knowledge I picked up today, I think that's a Caspian Tern on the poster.