Families can enjoy the Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park for free this Saturday. “First Day Festival,” sponsored by Comcast, will be held at the Chattanooga Zoo this Saturday, July 28th 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The free fun day is for school age children and their families where
the event will provide age-appropriate activities, including information and giveaways from a variety of social service agencies. Corporate sponsors will be on hand to provide health screenings, child safety tips and educational information for kids in grades K-5.
(more…)
Back in January I was excited to read about the penguins coming to Chattanooga and I can’t believe that they are here and being shown to the public now. The Penguins Rock exhibit opened today and thousands made their way to see the Gentoos and Macaronis. School children got to see the Penguin Keeper and ask her questions.
I love what the Penguin Keeper wrote about the Macaronis:
Olympic long distance swimmers are amazing to watch, but they would be no match for our macaroni penguins. These little birds spend more time in the water than on the rocky shoreline of “Penguins’ Rock.” In fact macaronis are swimming around about 80 percent of their lives. One co-worker even said, “The macaronis are like a bunch of 7 or 8 year olds that won’t get out of the pool.”
(more…)
I saw this bird in the back yard on Tuesday and was lucky enough to get a picture of it.
It is interesting to me that we got our bird feeder last week and today I got my email newsletter from Bird Watcher’s Digest and I learned this:
February is National Bird Feeding Month! Our government established this tradition in 1994 in recognition of the toll harsh winter weather can take on bird populations. Indeed, in a single night some birds may burn as much as 15 percent of their body weight just to survive. In times like these, particularly when snow and ice are thick all around, backyard bird feeding can make a real difference in the lives of birds.
Now snow and ice are not thick in our area, but our bird feeder has seen plenty of action since we put it up in the backyard. I love to watch the birds and am looking forward to even more as spring inches toward the Tennessee Valley.
If you are in Chattanooga and are wanting to check out the birds, the complete field list of Tennessee’s birds can be found on this .pdf. It is really easy to find a lot of these birds in my backyard because I am so close to Lookout Mountain, where the Chattanooga Nature Center is located. And apparently one of the best places to see birds in Chattanooga is the airport!
Chattanooga has a chapter of the Tenneesse Orthinological Society, with meetings every second Thursday of the month, 7 pm at the Ascension Lutheran Church.
Even if you are like me and can’t tell a pigeon from a sparrow (I’m getting better), you can still participate in feeding the birds just by placing a bird feeder in your back yard. And then you can enjoy your visitors everyday.
[tag]Chattanooga birds, National Bird Feeding Month, birding, Bird Watcher’s Digest[/tag]
