(Okoboji)– The final session of Birding On The Green for the season is coming up Monday, September 14th from 7:00 until 9:00 am at Brooks Golf in Okoboji.
Amy Heibult, Community Relations Director for the Dickinson County Conservation Board, which puts on the program, says it’s a great experience for area birdwatchers and fulfills an important requirement for the golf course…
“This helps them maintain their Audubon Sanctuary certification which kind of is a prestigious certification for golf courses to have. It usually requires habitat for birds, conservation practices, and then also educational lessons or requirements. And so this Birding on the Green program was the partnership that met those educational requirements for the certification.”
Heibult says the September 14th Birding on the Green is open to anyone interested, with no pre-registration required…
“The group will meet at Brooks Golf parking lot and from there they’ll take off at 7:00 am. We’ll drive around the course. It’s a beautiful course that has several habitats so you’ll see a lot of different bird species there. They have wetlands and wooded areas, open spaces, a lot of tree edges that birds really like. You see a wide variety of birds of prey, you see song birds, water fowl, shore birds. So it’s a really fun experience. There’s usually about 40 to 60 species that are spotted every session.”
Heibult says there’s likely to be even more sightings right now with fall migration.
She says those planning to participate should dress for the weather, and no previous birding experience is required…
“If you do have binoculars, we encourage folks to bring those, but if not a few pairs are provided by the Nature Center.”
The program is free.
