Welcome! The Washtenaw Audubon Society is an active chapter of Michigan Audubon formed in the early 1950's. Monthly programs feature guest speakers on a wide variety of natural history and birding topics. We conduct field trips to places in Ann Arbor, in Washtenaw County, and as far away as Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Other special events throughout the year bring members and friends together, such as the annual Christmas Bird Count and North American Migration Count. Most of our events are free and open to the public, but membership dues and volunteers support our ability to provide these activities. Please explore our website and consider joining some of our activities. We look forward to meeting you!
OUR NEXT FREE PROGRAM
Jun 20, Wednesday
7:30 PM
Rock Star of the Bird World: Kirtland's Warbler
Join Bill Rapai for the fascinating account of the near-extinction of the Kirtland’s Warbler, and the people who saved it. Bill Rapai is an award-winning journalist and president of the Gross Pointe Audubon Society. His first book, “The Kirtland’s Warbler,” was published this year by the University of Michigan Press, and copies will be available for purchase and signing.
This is an annual series of Thursday morning walks at Nichols Arboretum to observe migrants as they pass through on the way north to their breeding grounds. These leaderless walks are a great opportunity to join with other birders of all skill levels. In addition to the birds, the Arboretum's flora in spring are marvelous to behold. For example, in late April and early May, trillium blooms abundantly on the wooded hillsides.
This season's walks will start on April 5 and go through May 24. Park and meet at the Riverview Court cul-de-sac off Geddes Road at 8:00 a.m. Click here to map the location and get directions to the meeting spot.
May 19, Saturday
8:00 AM
Weekend Walk at Nichols Arboretum
For a few years now, Washtenaw Audubon has sponsored leaderless walks on Thursday mornings at Nichols Arboretum throughout the main weeks of both spring and fall migration. These events are the birding equivalent of pick-up basketball or soccer--people show up and pursue their common interest with whoever else is on hand.
Because of work and school schedules, many people can't attend the Thursday morning events, however. Most of our field trips are on weekend dates, and spring migration is always our busiest time, so we haven't worried too much in the past about the conflict so many of us have on weekday mornings. But since some WAS members have expressed an interest in Arb walks on weekends in addition to our other outings, we are going to experiment this spring with three weekend dates at the Arb: Sun 5/6, Sat 5/19, and Sat 5/26. In one or more of these we may end up having a leader for these trips, but the premise is that what is more important is to get a critical mass of people, then we won't need a leader, just as we don't for the Thursday sessions. If these weekend outings do well, we will follow up in the fall, possibly with a fuller list of dates.
Park and meet at the Riverview Court cul-de-sac off Geddes Road at 8:00 a.m. Click here to map the location and get directions to the meeting spot.
"Superbirders" program rescheduled Note that our evening programs have been re-shuffled a little. The "Superbirders of Southeast Michigan" program, originally scheduled for March 21, has been moved to May 16. Now on March 21 is an exciting program about conservation and recovery of grassland bird species, such as Henslow's sparrow, dickcissel, bobolink, and others. See our events listing on this website for up-to-date information.
Website Update! Rob French I want everyone who uses our website to have a good experience. However, I am struggling to accommodate the inflexibilities of Microsoft Internet Explorer. While there is more I can do, my hours and expertise are limited, and at some point I may just have to throw in the towel. If you are using Explorer, I highly recommend changing to either Firefox or Google Chrome, or Safari on Apple platforms (the Safari on my iPhone renders the Washtenaw Audubon website just about perfectly, even though the site was not designed to be iPhone compatible, yet inexplicably the desktop-based Explorer is inexcusably incapable of displaying the site correctly). I apologize for any inconvenience experienced by Explorer users, although I suspect that most of you have already discovered its inadequacies and have moved on. But please let me know if you are tied to Explorer, and if I hear from some that are I will re-double my efforts to make a website that works for you.
Leelanau BirdFest Starts May 30
If you find yourself up around the Leelanau Peninsula at the right time, you might consider some of the trips and events associated with this second annual birding festival, which runs May 30 to June 3.
Events include eleven different field trips, including one on a tall ship to see nesting Caspian terns. Keynote speaker is Greg Butcher, Director of Conservation for National Audubon.
Website Issues We are aware of some issues with our web pages not displaying properly, especially using Internet Explorer on Windows computers. We are working to resolve the situation. We recommend using the latest version of Firefox if you are using a Windows computer, at least until we fully test and fix issues with Internet Explorer. Contact with comments or questions.
Welcome to our refreshed website! by Rob French Like most remodels, this one took longer than expected and ran into more difficulties than expected, but we are very pleased to be able to bring you an updated Washtenaw Audubon website. There will no doubt be some hiccups as we implement the new design, so please bear with us and let us know if something looks funny or doesn’t seem to be working properly.
A significant benefit of this new site is that it offers the ability for multiple contributors to easily add and edit content, an ability that we have had in the past, but provided in a less-than-ideal fashion.
The content you have been used to finding is still here, but hopefully presented with a fresher, more appealing, and consistent look and feel. Of course the website is designed for you, the user, so please let us know what you like, what you don’t like, and your suggestions for additional improvements. Email us at .
