Article in: Birding

Meeting Kenn Kaufman

Perhaps the main reason we visited the Midwest Birding Symposium was to meet Kenn Kaufman. After using his field guide (a lot!) and reading the Kingbird Highway (which we reviewed), we really wanted to see Kenn in person. We got our chance and it was awesome!!

Here’s Dakota posing with Kim and Kenn Kaufman

We had the privilege to have Kenn sign our field guides and had a great chance to talk to him a bit after his workshop talk. Kenn is an elegant speaker and extremely kind to everyone. We talked to him about some of our conservation goals and it was a lot of fun.

Kenn Kaufman putting us in a bird-learning trance

If meeting Kenn wasn’t cool enough, we also got to meet his wife Kim. Her enthusiasm for promoting kids and birding (and all nature) is amazing and she was super friendly to us. Veery had contacted her a few months ago to get information about starting a kids birding club in northern Illinois. She was super helpful with this.

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get much interest in our area (yet) but we will be working on that in the upcoming months.

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6 Comments or Trackbacks ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

mon@rch says:

Kenn is such an amazing guy and without a doubt Kim is just as wonderful! I love the fact that promote so many kids into birding! Congrats to both you and Dakota for having the chance to meet Kenn! PS: Next time you see him, try to have him tell you his Chickadee Poem!

Posted on: September 17, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
Larry says:

Starting a birding club for kids is a noble cause.
I hope this project works out for you.I would like to get involved in a similar project in my area.-Ken kaufmann is awesome.I hope he comes to speak in my area some time.

Posted on: September 20, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
michele reidy says:

We live about 15 miles south of Cleveland and it appears we have an adult barred owl very active in our yard which is about 5 acres and heavily treed. We first noticed him/her on a dark, cloud covered day. Consulting Kenn’s book, we understood that to see the owl during the day when it was so dark would not be unusual. However, since then the owl remains very active throughout the day even when it is extremely bright outside. We wondered whether that is unusual behavior or not, given the time of year or whether there is something about this particular type of owl which explains the daytime activity.

Posted on: August 13, 2009 @ 4:31 pm
The Birdfreak Team says:

Just from own personal experience it seems that Barred Owls are one of the more active day-time owls. If your owl is being “really” active (which I know is a bit subjective) it may just be that: a super-active owl. Or it could be being disturbed often by dogs, crows, kids, etc. (Disturbed in the sense of not a bad thing just causing the owl to find a new perch). I believe they are more active in the winter in general.

I find it fascinating any time you can find an owl during the day and even better so to be able to watch their activity.

Posted on: August 13, 2009 @ 9:15 pm