To honor Wimberley’s recent designation as a Texas Bird City, the Parks and Recreation Department presented its third annual Migratory Bird Seminar last week, its first as an official Bird City. The seminar was themed, “World Migratory Bird Day 2025: Shared Spaces, Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities.”
With May continuing to be a peak time for North American bird migration, the seminar was a timely reminder of this phenomenal natural event.
After coffee and greetings, participants walked to the nearby Patsy Glenn refuge with Parks and Red staff to look for migratory birds in their natural habitat. The walk was followed by educational presentations from Natasia Moore of Texas Parks and Wildlife and Jamie Kinscherff with the Wimberley Valley Dark Sky Association. An illuminating activity was The Migration Game, in which participants role-played a migrating bird. Like a boardgame, players advanced by moving from one situation to the next on their journey. Players, in their roles, searched for food, water, shelter and the life threatening risks presented by human structures and objects.
Birding vendors and a table display by Texas Master Naturalists added to the experience.
