We are For the Birds!

The Beckham Bird Club, Inc., in existence since 1935, is a nonprofit organization of men, women, and children who are interested in birds, ecology, and nature. It is named for Charles Wickliffe Beckham, the first native Kentuckian to achieve a national reputation as an ornithologist.

Wood Thrush

Beckham Bird Club members are people who like birds, enjoy watching them, and want to keep in touch with others who also enjoy the sport. Birding can be as relaxing or strenuous as desired. Some prefer backyard birding – others prefer field trips. Either way, birding provides the enthusiast with excitement, the chance to learn, and fun. The Beckham Bird Club welcomes both individuals and families as members.

Meeting Time and Place

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month (except March and June) at 7:00 p.m. at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street off of Frankfort Avenue, in Louisville, KY. (click the link for a Google map) Occasionally our meetings are held at other locations, the newsletter indicates any such changes. Programs are varied and include lectures, discussions, panels, slides, movies and the many phases of ornithological study.

Join us for our meeting at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, in the Community Room on Tuesday, May 13. Hugh Archer, Executive Director of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, will be our speaker.  He is responsible for fundraising $2.2 million annually for land protection and operations for the non-profit’s activities. KNLT is working to set up additional land trusts in Kentucky, establishing the Pine Mountain Trail State Park and protection of the first landscape project (Pine Mountain) in Kentucky targeting 150,000 forested acres running through five counties providing migratory corridor through the eastern coal fields. He will update us on their efforts limit impacts to climate change through targeted habitat protection, with an emphasis on identification and protection of large forest blocks and migratory corridors that are intact and functional in Kentucky. There are two major projects underway to connect the whole 120 miles of Pine Mountain through five counties in the southeast and to connect Fort Knox and Bernheim Forest, and a number of projects underway for specific tracts that will add thousands of protected acres to Pine Mountain, including additions to Blanton Forest which is today 3,000 acres of old growth forest-and was our first project about 20 years ago. They hope to double its size in the next few years.