Fall an exciting time to study birds as you can see both migrants wintering in this area and the year-round residents. This was a good time to join wildlife biologist Dr. Fred Emerson in his popular “Birds of the Santa Ynez Valley” field course sponsored by the Wildling Art Museum. In this seven-week course, which ran Tuesdays, 8:30-10:30 a.m. beginning September 19, students visited different locations in the Santa Ynez Valley each week, and learned to identify and enjoy the life histories of birds frequenting different habitats, including ocean shore, chaparral, riparian woodland, oak woodland, and savanna. The course was valuable for the novice as well as the experienced bird watcher.

Dr. Emerson has conducted the Wildling Art Museum’s birding classes for several years and has a wide following of enthusiastic birders. He is broadly trained and experienced in biological sciences with a Ph.D. from Cornell University in wildlife management and an M.D. from Vanderbilt University. He was joined in the course this fall by entomologist Marion Schlinger who assisted in the identification of insects.