News Archive

Over the past few winter months, my husband and I have hosted two males and one female Anna’s Hummingbirds at our property. This is the fifth year we have had them consistently all winter. We live at a 1,000-foot elevation, so tend to have cooler temperatures than the valley floor. Many Willamette Valley folks have been hosting over-wintering Anna’s here for more than a decade. It has become normal to see these birds during the winter months. Through the cold, harsh ice storm (we were without power for 5 days) with its snow and sub-freezing nights, we tried to keep the sugar water feeders thawed for them. My husband would get out early to change out the warm feeders for the birds, having brought them in for the night. We even rigged up heat lamps and extension cords to keep them thawed during the day. Feeding wild birds is a big commitment!

A woman from the Coos Bay area called the Lane Audubon phone to report she has been hosting about 40 Anna’s Hummingbirds since the fall. They stay until early spring and then move on, probably heading north and east into the interior of the state. She said it was more typical for her to have seven or eight birds, so 40 was a new record for her!

Lane County Audubon Society was in the midst of the action again this year at the Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show, which ran from Friday, January 20, to Sunday, January 22, at the Lane County Fairgrounds. A steady stream of people from all over Lane County visited the LCAS booth to share their birding experiences and ask questions about avian life in our area.

LCAS is fortunate to have a dedicated crew of booth volunteers who enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for birds and their habitats. Because the Good Earth Show draws a crowd with similar enthusiasms, this has become our premiere booth event each year.

Thanks to everyone at the booth: Flo Alvergue, Connie Berglund, Judy Brown, Theresa Burnett, Hilary Dearborn, Margot Fetz, Barb Foreman, Dolly Marshall, Dianne McInnes, Sally O’Donnell, Nancy Radius, Bruce Stermer, Caryn Stoess, Dave Stone, Janie Thomas, Vjera Thompson, Joyce Trawle, and Susanne Twight-Alexander.

Winter is not the greatest time to find and watch birds, thanks to cold, inclement weather. But it is a great time to read and learn about birds! Here are some book recommendations shared by other nature lovers. Finding an interesting bird book to expand our knowledge and interest in nature will be easy this year. Hope you enjoy the flights of mental imagery on the pages of some of these books!

Steve Gordon’s recommendation: “I just read a really nice little book, The Path by Chet Raymo (Walker & Co., 2003). It makes me remember the amazing wonder I felt as a child for small parts of my yard and the fields nearby.” The author teaches astronomy and physics at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. His daily walks to and from work take him about one mile, including a stretch through a park. He ties the history of the universe and his town in with observations of stars, birds, plants, photosynthesis, and more. He has a good eye, ear, and mind. Through his story, he tells us of his feelings and knowledge of “place” at both a minute and universal scale. 

Jim Maloney recommends The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin Press, 2016). A New York Times bestseller, this book is not pretty prose about our favorite feathered friends. It succinctly summarizes studies of bird intelligence by informing us not only of the facts but also the history of the research and observations of the wonderful world of bird ingenuity.