When: Saturday, August 1, 2020, 7:00 pm CDT
Where: Laura's Zoom Conference Room
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Topic: Birds of Late Summer
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| Chestnut-sided Warbler in fall plumage |
In August, some birds may still be nesting, especially goldfinches and a few Cedar Waxwings, while others are already heading south, including hummingbirds and a lot of shorebirds. Many young birds are still hanging out with their parents, depending on at least some handouts as they learn to negotiate the world on their own. And many young migrating birds are studying the night sky; they may have magnetite in their brains to serve as a low-tech compass, but when the stars are visible, celestial navigation can be more reliable.
This is a great time to add birds to our yard lists, including species that don't live in the kind of habitat our yards provide. An interesting assortment of birds may fly over, and water features can lure in more. My favorite birdbath, with a recirculating flow, broke down this year and I couldn't replace it with anything similar, so I'm trying something new.
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| Blackburnian Warbler at my old birdbath |
The birdbath that no longer works looked like a rocky pool. We had another birdbath that was way too deep, with a shallower little pool at the top with a solar fountain. The main, too-deep part cracked, but I put the solar fountain in an old kitty litter box filled with small stones. Some backyard birds have been using that.
Now I've also set up a shallow pan-type bird bath on a short stand, with a spray dripper hooked up to our hose, slowly spilling into another pan-type bird bath on the ground. So far I haven't seen any birds at it, but we'll see what August brings.
The program will include plenty of photos of interesting August birds, and I'll try to give you a good understanding of their lives.