Audubon Society
We are rolling through the month of January this new year of 2006. Although the new year is not quite upon us if you are celebrating the Asian New Year. In the Islamic tradition this is not even 2006, but somewhere in the 1500's. In Benjamin Franklin's time two entire weeks were dropped out of the month of February to correct for accumulated errors in our calender. Your March rent payment came due real quick that year. Today we drove past a field covered with wintering geese, saw swans overwintering in a lagoon next to the Columbia River and marveled at the resourcefulness of the Grey Jays on the snowy slopes of Mt. Hood. However we order or disorder our human calender the natural world has been following its cycles for eons. Birding gives us an opportunity for a few moments to step out of human time and slip into another world of being
I am looking at the years birding adventures offered in our local Audubon Society of Portland's monthly newsletter. Local trips are offered to the Oregon Coast, to the Klamath Basin, one of the premier birding spots in the United States as well as beginning birdwatching outings and gull identification workshops. Further afield I'm tempted by the Hidden Fjords and Glaciers of Alaska's Inside Passage excursion for late summer.
Check out your local Audubon Society chapter and join for great opportunities to meet other birders, travel and make new friends. Check birdingguide.com's web site list for Audubon chapters and birding clubs near your area. There is also the national organization too, with a great magazine.
The other day I was mucking around the edge of a marsh looking for shorebirds. I really appreicated the Outdoor Research gators I was wearing. They kept the tops of my boots clean, my feet dry and since the gators are knee high my pants dry. Treat yourself to a pair for your winter birding outings and join your chapter of the Audubon Society.
Bill@birdingguide.com
