Registration is now open for the 2023 Adams County Amish Bird Symposium. The annual event is back after a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Adams County Travel and Visitors Bureau, which organizes the event, there will be some changes as the number of attendees will be reduced to avoid crowding at the facility and seating will be spaced at a greater distance. The location and time will remain the same for the 2023 event, held annually on the first Saturday in March. The date for this event is March 4th at the Wheat Ridge Community Building, located at 3715 Wheat Ridge Road, West Union. The attendee registration fee is $45 per person.
The day will be packed with interesting features including an optional field trip to Adams Lake led by local birders. Other speakers include Gabriel Foley on the theme of “Slow Birding – How Atlasing Shifts your Birding Perspective.” An atlas maps the regional distribution of local birds at an exceptionally fine scale and usually focuses on breeding birds. These projects provide data that are invaluable to conservation efforts and documenting distribution changes. Gabriel Foley, Coordinator of the Maryland & DC Breeding Bird Atlas, will discuss what behaviors to look for to identify breeding activity in birds, how these observations can be used for conservation, and how to support nesting birds in your yard.
Another presenter for the event is Jim McCormac, who will present on warbler species. McCormac worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for 31 years as a botanist, and later specialized in wildlife diversity projects, especially those involving birds. He has authored or co-authored six books, including Birds of Ohio (Lone Pine 2004) and Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage (Kent State University Press 2009). The latter won the 2010 Ohioana Book award. He is a co-author of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II book. He’s currently at work on books about dragonflies and moths. Jim writes a column, Nature, for the Columbus Dispatch, and regularly publishes a natural history blog. He has written numerous articles in a variety of publications and has delivered hundreds of presentations throughout the eastern United States.
Other presenters include Bob Scott Placier on shrubland management and thrush migration along with Brian Jorg, who will present on “Restoring the Bowyer Wetland: Agricultural Field to Wetland.” Since retiring in 2015, Placier has conducted songbird banding during both spring and fall migration seasons at his home in heavily forested eastern Vinton County. Habitat along ¼ mile lane under the power lines is managed as a “stable shrubland”, with mist nets placed between the shrubland and adjacent mature forest on a mowed corridor. Jorg is the Manager of the Native Plant Program for the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Brian also manages the Boyer Wetland, a 650-acre property in Warren County. Among his responsibilities is the Native Plant Program. This program deals with a wide range of projects that deal directly with the propagation and conservation of our native flora. This also includes the recovery projects of endangered and critically imperiled plants. Brian also travels extensively to study both the flora and fauna of the world. Leading trips to the Galapagos, Kenya, Argentina, and Madagascar, with the next trip to Antarctica this year.
To reserve tickets for the Adams County Amish Bird Symposium, visit: https://www.amishbirdsymposium.org/
