June 9, 2020 ---

Many of you have let us know how much you are enjoying the “Messages & Memories” email messages from VENT tour leaders. We would also like to hear from you, our VENT travelers, about your experiences. We are creating a new page on our website called “Traveler Experiences.” If you would like to share your most memorable, remarkable, or just plain fun experiences while on a VENT tour:

• Write about your experience in 50 to 500 words.

• Attach one photo, either related to the experience or a photo of yourself. We can accept jpgs only. If you have other photos related to your experience that you’d like share, please upload them to a photo sharing site, such as Flickr and SmugMug, and we will link your story to that site.

• Send your text and photo to TäV Garvin (tav@ventbird.com). She will let you know when your experience has been posted to our website. If you’d like, rather than sharing a particular experience, you can tell us about one of your favorite trips!

Please send any questions you may have to TäV (tav@ventbird.com). We look forward to hearing from you!

A short video about Victor, “Victor Emanuel: Naturalist & Birdwatcher," was produced by the Travis Audubon Society in Austin, Texas and shown during presentation of the Victor Emanuel Conservation Award to Chris Harte, October 12, 2019. The video was also included in the Texas Parks & Wildlife television program that aired on PBS stations in Texas during the last week of November.

Check it out on VENT’s YouTube channel https://youtu.be/qhLrL2cqaXs

  New book by Kenn Kaufman!

Kenn Kaufman, renowned bird expert, writer, artist, photographer, and world traveler, has written yet another fascinating and enlightening book about birds. In A Season on the Wind, Inside the World of Spring Migration, Kenn focuses on the spectacular bird migration along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Kimberly, and the complex issues, such as climate change, that could affect this migration in the future.

New book by Rick Wright!

The sparrows of North America have a reputation of being extremely difficult to identify, sometimes by even the most experienced birders and bird experts. Rick Wright, VENT tour leader and designer of VENT’s Birds & Art tours, has written a book that provides not only the facts and figures to help with sparrow identification but also includes fascinating background information on these birds often referred to as LBBs (little brown birds) or LBJs (little brown jobs). As part of the Peterson Reference Guide Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America is available now at your local bookstore!