Flathead Audubon and Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center are hosting and teaching a FREE full-day outdoor experience on the "Language of Birds" Saturday, May 13th based at the Kalispell Montessori School campus on Willow Glen Drive in Kalispell. The workshop is made possible through a grant from the Nature Connection Mentoring Foundation and with special thanks to Kalispell Montessori School, our site host. This workshop is not to be confused with only "birding by ear" (identifying birds by their songs and calls), although that may be a part of the day's process.

In the woods, birds miss nothing! Their survival depends on that. Their vision and hearing are beyond our understanding. Their language - both between species and among their own - is complex, sophisticated and effective. Best of all, the patterns of their songs, calls, and body language can tell stories as they happen, and it only takes some patience and sensory awareness to understand what is going on in the woods - beyond what we can usually observe through our binoculars. When a chickadee sees a weasel, the pattern of its alarm calls can tell us how close it is, when it enters a chipmunk tunnel, when it emerges, and when it moves out of the chickadee's danger zone. There are hundreds of stories like this happening, sometimes simultaneously, every hour and day in the wild.

Bruce Tannehill, Flathead Audubon's bird song recorder, bird song CD author, and expert on the science of bird song, will present on the complexity, variety and detail in bird language. And true to Audubon tradition, will teach us some of the "who's who" out there.

Flathead Audubon education specialist, Dennis Olson, was born with a (so-far) non-lethal mutation. He can mimic quite a few bird songs and will teach strategies for learning songs and calls, and help participants begin to learn the differences between the sounds of a single bird. He can also talk back to birds, because of that mutation, and share with the group when it is appropriate to do that, and when it is not in the birds' best interest to talk to them. (You have to know what you are saying, for example!)

Jennifer Bresee and Brett Holmquist from Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center have both studied under a well-known expert on the language of birds, Jon Young. He was the "mentee" in the Tom
Brown "Tracker" series of books, has written books of his own, including, What the Robin Knows, and teaches connections to the earth full-time and internationally. Jen and Brett will acquaint us with the special techniques of becoming "invisible" (or at least "not scary") in the woods, so the stories that birds tell can unfold around us. From there, we will be practicing what we preach.

The four of us will each take a small group to a different spot in the Owen Sowerwine Natural Area, sit quietly, let the birds and other residents acclimate to our presence, take some notes and do some mapping of "the events of the day". We will be practicing "hyper-observation", and also getting some peaceful quiet time in a beautiful area. We will be concentrating less on the "who" of bird sounds, and more on the "what's happening" - the stories being described by birds.

This will be a grand start to a new way of appreciating birds, and it will enrich your appreciation for our feathered friends and confidants! Please join us - and dress for outside!

TO REGISTER: Enter or click the direct registration link below or visit www.ravenwoodolc.org and find a registration link on the Community Events Tab in the Programs section.

https://campscui.active.com/orgs/RavenwoodOutdoorLearningCenter#/selectSessions/1609701

Contact brett@ravenwoodolc.org 406 260 8620 with any questions.

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