Spring ABBW 2017 Recap

The inaugural Baltimore Birding Weekend was hosted May 19-21, 2017, by the Patterson Park Audubon Center (PPAC), Baltimore’s community engagement center of the National Audubon Society, and Conservation Community Consulting, LLC, operators of the award-winning Delmarva Birding Weekends.

Click the images below for news about the event, including a National Audubon Society article by Christine Grillo, with photos by Camilla Cerea.

Audubon is a Baltimore leader in urban bird conservation, nature education, and community revitalization. Though we are headquartered in southeast Baltimore, our wingspan reaches much further. PPAC’s mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of Baltimore communities and the Earth’s biological diversity.

We collaborate with communities to transform blighted city spaces into colorful wildflower gardens that invite birds and butterflies as well as people to enjoy them. We partner with schools to plant bird-friendly gardens and explore nature in the city while meeting teachers’ curriculum goals.

Our Baltimore Birding Weekend co-host is Conservation Community Consulting, who has more than 20 years’ experience operating the successful Delmarva Birding Weekends on the Eastern Shore. Together, we hosted an urban birding festival for Baltimore residents and visitors, which consisted of an exciting itinerary of bird watching field trips entirely within the city limits. These green spaces are vital to exhausted and hungry birds looking to rest and refuel during migration. That makes spring the ideal time to catch a glimpse of these international travelers as they stop by Baltimore’s green spaces for a brief visit on their way to summer nesting in the north!

Our afternoon “Tally Rallies” added to the birding fun. At happy hour on Friday and Saturday, we met at some of Baltimore’s premier breweries to tally the species seen each day, swap birding stories, and enjoy the city’s best craft beer. We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday afternoon, when we brought our binoculars to Camden Yards to view Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays.

The purpose of the Baltimore Birding Weekend is to provide guided experiences that connect people to the city’s green spaces, highlight the incredible wildlife diversity that can be discovered in our urban parks, wetlands, and ecological restoration sites, and to have a fun time birding in and exploring Charm City.

Fees collected for Baltimore Birding Weekend field trips support Audubon’s neighborhood greening and family education programs such as Bird Explorers teen birdwatching, wildlife gardening workshops for home gardeners across the area, and Tiny Tots and its Spanish language counterpart, Amigos Pequeñitos.