Meetings

Siouxland’s Challenging Bird Identification

with Bill & Jerry

Thursday, may 7, 2026 at 7:00 pm
Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
4500 Sioux River Rd, Sioux City

Our Siouxland home lies on the boundary of the Eastern Deciduous Forest and the Great Plains. As such, it is at the limit of some Eastern species and their Western counterparts. Think Eastern and Spotted Towhees, Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, Eastern and Western Wood Pewees and others. In these cases, the counterparts are difficult to distinguish and present special identification challenges.

The program will discuss some of these pairs and other Springtime identification problems.

Leading our discussion will be longtime, local birders Jerry Probst and Bill Huser, who began birding in the early 1970’s. Often birding together during their lunch break from the Sue Bee Honey laboratory, they found many of their first lifers at the nearby Floyd Cemetery.

Both were charter members of the re-established Loess Hills Audubon Chapter in the early 1980’s and have each served the Chapter as president. Each has birded from coast to coast and from the Rio Grande to Hudson Bay.

This will be the last program until September 2026 when our next season begins!

Summer Break!

Back in September 2026 - at Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center

During Summers, be sure to check our Upcoming Outings page or our Calendar page to join us at some of the best birding locations in Siouxland! Events are still in the works, but the dates are set!

a list of our previous programs

Thank you to our presenters!

A Look at our past programs during the 2025-2026 season.

• Daniel A Soluk, PhD — Conserving an endangered dragonfly, 4 September 2025

• Thane Dinsdale — Birding in Newfoundland, 2 October 2025

• Brian Buckmeier and Darren Maurer — Dinosaurs of Hell Creek, 6 November 2025

• LHAS Member and Friends Holiday Slide Show with Paul Roisen, 4 December 2025

• Danielle Metzger — Native Gardens in the Home Landscape (LHWO), 8 January 2026

• Tucker Lutter — Wildlife of Siouxland: the Past, Present, and Future, 5 February 2026

• John Buntsma — Why Garden? Explore the Benefits of Gardening (ISU Extension), 5 March 2026

• Jillian Murphy — Cutaneous Water Loss in Nestling Songbirds (USD Research Student), 9 April 2026

A Look at our past programs during the 2024-2025 season.

• Steve Backus — Antartica, 5 September 2024 Zoom presentation

• Victoria DeVos — Rediscover Plymouth County Conservation, 3 October 2024

• Rod Tondreau — Western Prairie Plants in Iowa, 7 November 2024

• Loess Hills Audubon Members and Friends Holiday Photo and Video Show with Traveler’s Tales with Randall Williams, 5 December 2024

• Matt Anderson — Cartoonist and Conservationist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling, 9 January 2025

• Brian Hazlett and Ryan Allen — Campfire Tales at the Midpoint of Winter, 6 February 2025

• Vicki Baker — Wastewater Treatment Past, Present, and Future, 6 March 2025

• Mark Dixon — Floodplain Forests along the Missouri River: Past, Present, and Future, 3 April 2025

• Ty Smedes — Eagle Hunters of Mongolia, 1 May 2025