Big Country Audubon is pleased to announce that our bird blind at the Abilene State Park is now ready for birders, wildlife watchers, and birds! In September, 2007, the blind was delivered to the State Park. Over the next few months our eager volunteers painted the inside, hung feeders, and constructed a water feature. Immediately the birds found the food and water; cameras found the birds; and we hope you find the Bird Blind Photos!

And now I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful TPWD personnel for helping us with our project: Paul, Okie, Bobby, and Cody. Big Country Audubon volunteers who helped make this dream a reality: John, Lorie, Kathy, Joan, Charline, Carolyn, W.K, Steve, Heidi, Dan, Bera, and Peggy. Special thanks to Earth Share of Texas, and Texas Audubon for helping us achieve our goals.

There’ll be a few more improvements in the near future and we look forward to seeing all at our grand opening during the Abilene State Park Spring Festival, April 19. Stay tuned; I’m sure there will be more birds-from-the-blind photos to come.

Big Country Audubon had another wonderful Christmas Social this past December, 2007. And like the 2006 social, I got a little inventive on the captions. Thanks to everyone for making 2007 a great year! Pictures are up at Christmas Social 2007.

And, did you know Tom, Toni, Carolyn, and WK found THE rarest bird ever recorded on Christmas Bird Count? It was a very rare bird for the Abilene area and I’m pretty sure it’s the rarest seen in North America. Ornithologists are still trying to determine how to classify it. For a complete list of birds seen on our 2007 CBC, check out the Christmas Bird Count 2007 list. Anyone wanting a copy for their personal records, let me know and I’ll get one to you.

Nothing brings a group together like humor. Upon popular demand the Unusual Bird Sightings presentation has been reproduced. Any resemblance to actual persons is strictly accidental. No birds were harmed in the making of this presentation; I don’t know about the people.

If you don’t see your likeness here; it is only a matter of time before the club president immortalizes your image.

I finally remembered to take pictures of our club field trip to San Angelo. (I was getting tired of staring at Christmas pictures). Two highlights of the day: watching a Great Blue Heron Rookery at Lake Nasworthy, and eating hamburgers at San Angelo State Park compliments of Leon and Bera. The heron pictures are in the Heron Rookery Album, and pictures of our cookout are in the San Angelo Field Trip album. Sometimes events meld together but if you follow the links, I think you can figure it out. Everyone had a good time and the creative captions under the pictures are totaly made up to keep you from falling asleep. And if you’re still awake and want more boredom, a list of what was seen is posted in the Sightings section.

Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas gathering fun, festive, surprising, and tasty! The food was delicious, the entertainment informative, and the surprise unexpected. I enjoyed seeing everyone; you are a special group of friends that I can share my enthusiastic joy of birding with. Thank You All for the goodies you brought. A big Thank You to my non-birding spouse for providing the entertainment. I know the hours it took to produce twenty minutes of video. A huge Thank You to Kim for allowing me and John to run around on base and bring you images of the birdlife there. And another Thank You to John for always having a camera handy. I’ve posted a few pictures; they’re in the Christmas Social, 2006 album under Club Activities. Because these photos are candid and not posed (well, one of them was posed), I took the liberty of being a tad creative with captions. I love you all, see you in the field on CBC!

A few Big Country Audubon members met Saturday, September 23, 2006, to look for the Great Kiskadee and then bird the Old Fort Phantom area. The kiskadee did a fast fly by leaving many with dissatisfied looks. So off we went to the Old Fort Phantom area to see what was hopping or flying about. Finding the area dead birdless, we headed to Waste Water Treatment Plant in Jones County. There we found a variety of birds and some allowed us to snap their pictures. Hey, check out our fine taste in birding fashion. Did I hear someone complain about the lead car’s quick left turn? You can see a complete list of species recorded in our Sightings section, too.

Big Country Audubon had their Annual Meeting Thursday, September 7, at Oakwood Trails. We all had a great time visiting with each other, eating, birding, eating, electing new officers, eating, and well, you get the point. Thanks to all who brought food, drinks, and desserts! And thanks to all who’ve worked so hard to make the past year remarkable. Special thanks goes to Lorie for her three years of excellent leadership; to Dolores for her newsletter work; to Charline for keeping us in the black; to John for his ability to continually bring us closer to the birds; to Joan and Kathy for picking great birding spots; to Esta for keeping the public informed; and to Jay for creating this web site.

I’m looking forward to another great year.

I know, this post is a little late, almost three months late. But being new to web posting and learning WordPress is my excuse. Of course spring migration and birding had nothing to do with this post’s tardiness.

Enough pontificating; here’s the story: Abilene State Park held their second annual Spring Festival Arts and Crafts Show April 22, 2006. Big Country Audubon participated by offering bird feeders, nestboxes, bird seed, wildlife paintings, bird photographs, plants, and miscellaneous items. In addition to our arts and crafts booth, we also participated in the children’s area by helping them to create thumbprints. The children were eager to show off their creative talents and Kathy did a great job of organizing this activity.

Hats off to Lorie for her overall planning. She spent months and hours with the Friends of Abilene State Park organizing and encouraging our participation in this event. The day was a huge success and you can see a few pictures of our members as they set up their booth. Thanks to those that helped: Lorie, Joan, Carolyn, Charline, Tom, Kathy, Earlene, Steve, Dolores, Esta, and John. We eagerly look forward to next year’s Festival.

Coming soon to the Abilene State Park:  a bird blind where you can watch the birds as they come in to feed, drink, and bathe.  Please watch this site for regular updates on this project.