Our next meeting will be on January 16, 2025 at the Forest and will be starting at 7:00 PM.

Our guest speaker will be Phil Swanson. His presentation is “Birds of the Warbler Yard”

From Phil Swanson

I call my presentation “Birds of the Warbler Yard”.
Over the years I have seen more species of birds in my yard than any other yard in Nebraska. Just last year I saw the 170th bird species in the yard. It was a beautiful Olive-sided Flycatcher catching bees and wasps from my grape jelly feeder.
My slideshow video will show many of those 170 species in my backyard environment. The photos and some short videos will let you see their actions and  behavior. I’ll follow the video with a short presentation giving some tips on how I attract birds to the yard along with some stories.

My bio:
I have lived in my same home in Nebraska since 1971. I started birding in late 1981 and a few months later my good friend, Andy Saunders, at that time Chief Naturalist at Fontenelle Forest, convinced me to photograph birds. I photograph the birds for documentation but obviously try for better and better photos.
I have photographed over 1400 different species world wide. Within the ABA area which is the Continental US and Canada I have seen 730 species and photographed 729 species which at one time was in the top ten in the US. 

Photos Displays are now up

We have put up “Birds of Fontenelle Forest” at the forest and “Bridges” at the Bellevue Library.

Now We Need More, Different Subjects

At the January and February meetings we will be collecting Mammals of Fontenelle Forest and Sunrise/Sunset photos.  Mammals will be a challenge –there are actually 18 mammals listed in the FF guide but some are really hard or nearly impossible to see.  

Featured Photo

Birding Video

About 11 and 1/2 minutes

In Closing

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday season and hope we all have a Happy New Year. Please comment below. Leave me your thoughts about doing this year’s photo contest “on line”. This means no printed photos that will hang somewhere. Our judge will judge you .jpg photo files.