Our 2022 Year of Birds has come to an end, and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.  We offered a mix of programming including bird hikes, an impressive group of speakers, and opportunities to appreciate and create bird-related art.  First-time visitors were introduced to our beautiful arboretum and bird hike participants experienced the thrill of spotting a favorite bird. We partnered with the In Color Birding Club, the Feminist Bird Club of Philly, and Philly Queer Birders who all graciously offered their time to lead these bird hikes on Awbury’s grounds. 

Speaker Series attendees learned about everything from Ornitherapy, or bird watching as relates to wellness, to strategies to limit bird and building collisions to the history of birding through the stories of Women and members of the BIPOC Community. We’d like to thank Holly Merker, Debbie Beer, Jason Hall, Troy Bynum, George Armistead, Keith Russell, Tony Croasdale, William Reaume, and Cindy Ahern for generously giving their time and talents to our Speaker Series programming. 

We also have a bluebird trail at Awbury thanks to the generous contribution of time, advice, and resources of the Bluebird Society of Pennsylvania. We have yet to see a bluebird on our grounds, but as bluebirds are a symbol of hope, we are optimistic that we will see them in the future.

A priority when developing our programming for the Year of Birds was that the majority of it would be free to the general public. Our goal was to share the wonderful space that is Awbury with as many people as possible. We were helped in this by a generous grant from Spring Point Partners, PA Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. We also established a bird-a-thon which gave individuals the chance to pledge any amount, starting at 25 cents, per bird species observed at the Arboretum during 2022. The count as of mid-December is 135 species. If you would like to participate in our bird-a-thon, it is not too late.

Here is the link to sign-up:  https://awbury.wpengine.com/bird-a-thon-2022/. 

Lastly, we are especially grateful to Bill Reaume, Awbury’s resident birder, who led hikes, gave an inspiring presentation and could be counted on to help with set-up, clean-up, and anything else needed to ensure that our programming was successful.