Your February 2026 newsletter is here!

There were already tens of thousands of geese in the fields making an enormous racket with Vs backed up to the north as far as the eye could see. The fields were so packed with geese I wondered how any more could fit in, but, with much squawking, they did. Marvelous.

More daylight for birding! Keep your feeders and water features stocked, especially if we hit some cold snaps or get a decent snowfall.

The most memorable sighting of the day was what looked like a snow squall off in the distance. But it became obvious as they drew closer that it was a flock of more than a thousand snow geese swirling in a vortex that approached the lead car and engulfed it like a snow goose tornado.

While the number of Bald Eagles we have seen has varied from as few as 8 to as many as 49 in the areas we are able to count, just seeing 1 perched in a tree or flying overhead makes the survey well worth the long trip.

American Kestrels are elegant birds. In flight they show their light-colored undersides and fly rapidly with swept back wings. On a windy day you can identify a kestrel by seeing a bird facing into the wind, flapping its wings to stay in place.

Congratulations to this fall’s 2025 Mini-Grants for Educators awardee!

CCAS needs a program chair and other volunteers with good ideas. If you like the idea of shaping our Society’s programs to make them interesting and instructive, visit https://www.champaigncountyaudubon.org/volunteer and volunteer. We’ll be glad to support you.

Your December 2025 newsletter is here!

New CCAS T-Shirts!

Winter winds are whipping through and it’s finally feeling like late fall! The winter finch forecast looks good this year so be on the lookout for Pine Siskins and Redpolls to show up at feeders and in trees with seed pods, such as sweet gums.

So, I am finally writing about the American Crow, a bird almost everyone has seen, probably even from your car. You already know these big black birds that caw.

Your November 2025 newsletter is here!

Breeding bird season is in full swing and we’ve been appreciating our local nesting birds and observing their habits closely. Join us in September for Sunday Morning Bird Walks!

When I looked out the window of a friend’s house and saw a small reddish-brown bird scratching back and forth in the leaf litter of a streamside thicket, it was certainly easy to see as it created a spray of fallen leaves.

Your October 2025 newsletter is here!

Breeding bird season is in full swing and we’ve been appreciating our local nesting birds and observing their habits closely. Join us in September for Sunday Morning Bird Walks!

When I first heard the name of this month’s bird, long before I’d been introduced to birding, I thought it was a joke. What kind of bird sucks sap? And “yellow-bellied” just added to the hilarity of it. But indeed, as I would discover for myself, there really are woodpeckers with bellies that look like they’ve been water-colored yellow, and which really do suck sap. 

Your September 2025 newsletter is here!