Veery and her son Dakota have temporarily moved! The Birdfreak Team is partially split for the summer/fall as Veery spends six months working in Jefferson City, Missouri. Join them as they answer the question: How’s the birding in Mid Missouri?
Dakota and I checked out Jefferson City’s area bird club Thursday, October 8. After dodging some torrential rains to get inside, we had a good time meeting some of the local birders.
The River Bluffs Audubon Society was founded in 1975. This chapter of the National AUdubon Society covers Cole and some of the other adjacent counties in Mid-Missouri.
Like our local bird club in Rockford (NCIOS), the River Bluffs Audubon Society meets once a month most of the year and has various speakers and presentations along with their business meeting.
Dakota took some general photos of the meeting
When we first arrived at the Runge Nature Center, we noticed a high number of children, milling about. Children are not a common sight at the bird club back home so at first we were intrigued. Alas, Runge was also hosting a Hunting Education event and that is where all the kids were headed. The birding club was not as popular, but we didn’t mind.
The speaker was Jim Rathert and he talked about a WIld Bird Garden being built in Jefferson City’s Memorial Park that will include a dripping water feature. The imortance of drippers for attracting birds is something we are very familiar with. We found out first hand a few years ago when we placed a dripper in our backyard and received a “warbler mania” year.
Cape May Warbler – Loving the Dripper
All in all, we had a wonderful time. We found out about some of their volunteer work and field trips (also posted online) and met some great people, including the owners of Birds-I-View, a local store that sells bird-related products. Steve and Regina Garr have worked hard to promote wildlife and educational programs.
