Friends of Sears Island will host a backyard birding workshop for kids at the Belfast Free Library on Wednesday, February 6th, from 4:00-5:15pm. The program will be led by Rob Burke, who is always on the lookout for birds. He lives in Newburgh and is a retired science teacher as well as a Friends of Sears Island board member. Rob will teach children how to identify the birds that overwinter in Maine, and about the Great Backyard Bird Count, which is led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society and happening from February 15-18, 2019. Participants will make their own bird field guides to take home as well as a homemade bird feeder, and will leave with all of the datasheets and instructions necessary to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count with their families. This is a great way to practice citizen science at home, with all ages! More than 160,000 people worldwide participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count each year to study the abundance and distribution of birds.
This program is for kids ages 6-12 with an accompanying adult. To sign-up, please visit https://fosi1.wpengine.com/registration-february-6-science-squad/. This event is part of Friends of Sears Island’s “Science Squad,” an after-school program involving children as scientists, explorers, and stewards of their environment.
Registered participants can plan to meet in the Abbott Room, on the ground floor of the library. For more information, visit www.friendsofsearsisland.org, facebook.com/friendsofsearsisland or call 207-975-3878.
Photo credit: Rob Burke