Nancy Allured

Every late summer to fall, major ornithological entities publish their taxonomic updates. Updates include newly added bird species, which may be newly discovered species, or more commonly the elevation of subspecies or subspecies groups to species ranks. The latter is referred to as a “split.” The updates also include a number of “lumps,” where it is decided that two or more species are not sufficiently different from each other, and therefore better treated as subspecies or other forms of a single species. If listing is your game, splits have the potential to increase your list total, while lumps can decrease it. […]

Join us again for the annual Fermi Christmas Bird Count on December 14. This is your chance to contribute to an important community science opportunity. Data collected provides invaluable insights into winter bird populations plus it’s a great opportunity to connect with fellow birders. If you participated last year, you’re already on the list and will be contacted in early December regarding your counting areas. If it’s been a few years, or you are new to the count and would like to participate, please contact the compiler, Jeff Chapman, at jeffchapman948@gmail.com. Remember you’ll be grouped with a team so no

  It’s time for the annual Birding and Breakfast event on August 13 to be held at Pratt’s Wayne Woods. We’ll start the day with a field trip at 7:30 a.m. led by the Byrd Gyrlz team, who covered Pratt’s for the Big Fun Morning. At 9:00 a.m. we’ll gather at the picnic shelter for a yummy breakfast. Mark your calendar now for this don’t-miss event!

Join the ranks of fellow DBC members and let’s have some fun participating in eBird’s annual Big Day, set for October 9. Big Days represent a 24-hour opportunity to note birds you see and hear, and in this case, record your sightings on eBird. Sometimes Big Days support friendly competition among birders, and sometimes a Big Day is all about challenging yourself to meet a goal. This Big Day is about celebrating birds and contributing to important citizen science via eBird, where data will be compiled in a massive list to learn more about migratory trends, bird abundance, and more.

The DuPage Forest Preserve recently profiled DBC member and 2021 speaker John Cebula in its “Catching Nature” series of people who have found ways to engage with nature in interesting ways.  John shares how DuPage Forest Preserves support his lifelong interest in nature, the changes in our preserves he has seen over the last decades, and the perspective it has given him—nature’s lessons and how nature inspires.  Read it here: https://www.dupageforest.org/catching-nature/john-cebula

The DuPage Birding Club’s annual Members’ Night is back! It will be via Zoom on Thursday, March 11, 2021, and all DuPage Birding Club photographers are invited to share their favorite bird photos and stories with fellow members. The photos can be from any birding location—and all levels of photographic expertise will be enjoyed by club members. Each presentation is limited to 10 minutes, so please be very selective and limit yourself to 10 to 15 images to share. We will only have time to show approximately 10 presentations. To make sure the evening goes smoothly, we ask that presenters

Saturday, December 19, All Day Event Christmas Bird Count, Fermilab Circle Volunteers are welcome to participate in the Christmas Bird Count event in the Fermilab Circle. This year it will be on Saturday, December 19  – an all day event. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s count will be quite a bit different than year’s past. First, there will be no countdown dinner this year, as it’s unclear that open dining will be possible or advisable. In addition, we will have a Zoom countdown instead of an in-person countdown. Details are still being worked out, but the countdown will

The DuPage Forest Preserve recently featured three DBC members and shared their perspectives in the Catching Nature blog. President Denis Kania shares how he found his true calling in the 90s after he accepted a role in natural resource management for the St. Charles Park District.  He shares his perspective on being proactive stewards of nature, letting nature inspire us, and the interrelatedness of the natural world. https://www.dupageforest.org/catching-nature/denis-kania   DBC member Anna Testone was always a nature lover but caught the birding bug when her daughter introduced her to Facebook birding groups and she discovered all the lovely preserves nearby