Tips for identifying birdsong to be offered at Weminuche Audubon meeting

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By Stacey Couch

Special to The SUN

It’s springtime and the air is filled with the songs of birds, but do you know which melodies belong to which of your feathered friends?

At the next chapter meeting of the Weminuche Audubon Society on Wednesday, May 15, board member and ornithologist Stacey Couch will host a “Birding by Ear Workshop.” The meeting will start with socializing at 6 p.m. at the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis Street.

While colors and markings are key ways for identifying bird species, bird song is a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect of birding. If you’re not listening to the songs, you’re missing a significant portion of the numbers and species of birds out there.

In this interactive workshop, Couch will emphasize the reasons why birding by ear is a valuable skill to develop. She will share tips and free tools for learning and identifying birdsong. Then we will work together as a group to listen to recordings of birdsong common to the area and discuss ways to memorize the songs.

This WAS event is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome. The presentation will be made after a short business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. To show our appreciation to the Methodist Church for our meeting place, we are asking that you bring a contribution of nonperishable food to be donated to its food bank.

Call Jean Zirnhelt at 731-2985 for more information.

For information on local birding events, go to: www.weminucheaudubon.org and www.facebook.com/weminucheaudubon/.