Let's get together on Wed., Jan 17th to look for ducks, Cedar Waxwings, woodpeckers and Le Conte Sparrows and a Bald Eagle! These will be our target birds but we will accept others too!

Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the Wildlife Ramp in Oriental. Raindate will be on Thursday the 18th, same time, same place. Eve Dobson has invited us over to her place in Dolphin Point for coffee and muffins, so we will head that way after checking out the waterfront in Oriental. This will be the only outing in January and I hope to get someone to lead a February outing as I will be in Florida in February.

I have had a Rufous Hummingbird at my place since before Christmas. One day last week I had two hummers, a Screech Owl and a Merlin. All this while Bob Holmes and Wade Fuller were here from New Bern to check out my hummer. Just like Wild Kingdom. More and more we are getting western hummingbirds in the Carolinas in the winter.

Someone asked me how they could go about learning bird identification. First of all, try to identify all the birds in your own yard. Do this one at a time. Look at the bird with your binoculars -- then go to the field guide and find the bird. After identifying it in your book, read all the information about the bird. Look at the map and try to determine if the bird will nest here or will it migrate north to nest.

This is what we try to do on our field trips. It is impossible to learn bird identification just by reading about it or watching a video. Pretty soon, if you learn the birds one at a time, you will get to know them and can easily identify them when you see them fly or hear their song.

Jeff Hall from Weyerhaeuser has invited our group to Cool Springs for an Owl Prowl on Tuesday, February 20th from 6 to 8 p.m., raindate the 21st. We will talk about this on our birding trip next Wednesday and perhaps get a carpool to go there and participate.

Take Route 17N at Bridgeton for 8 miles until you see a Texaco station. Turn left on Askins Brick Rd. for l/8th mile and bear right on a dirt road for 2.6 miles. There will be a sign for Cool Springs on the right. Turn into the gate and park in the parking area near the picnic pavilion. There will be a meeting in the red house before you depart with Jeff Hall and Sandy Parker. Be sure to dress warmly and bring a flashlight.