This time of year, millions of birds are making their journey south. In Ohio, migration season begins to pick up around the beginning of September, peaking near Sept. 20 and wrapping up with the final flocks in late October.

To the novice, birding is something to occasionally notice and sometimes appreciate. The sweet tweets that begin in the spring and the enjoyable sights caught from a birdfeeder or backyard encounter.

However, birding can also be a way of life. Knowing the difference between the blackpoll warbler, black-throated green warbler, bay-breasted warbler, magnolia warbler and blackburnian warbler is as easy as reciting the alphabet.

Next week, the Friends of the Library, in partnership with Preservation Parks of Delaware County, are excited to host author, famed naturalist and Ohio birding legend Kenn Kaufman.

On Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m., Kenn will discuss his newest book “The Birds That Audubon Missed.” Kenn’s discussion and book signing will take place at the Liberty Branch Library. Then, on Friday, Oct. 18, Kenn will guide participants on a morning bird walk at Deer Haven Park.

Tickets for these events support the Friends of the Delaware County District Library, who donate all proceeds back to the Delaware County District Library to help fund our programs and services. Friends of the DCDL receive a discount on an event of their choice. Discounted copies of “The Birds That Audubon Missed” from Beanbag Books can also be purchased at checkout.

For more bird fun, I checked BirdCast, a bird migration website that forecasts the nocturnal migration of birds in geographic areas. For example, last night, an estimated 6,682,000 birds crossed Ohio as they made their way toward their final destination. Peak flight time was between 11:40 p.m. and 2:20 a.m., at an average speed of about 22 miles per hour and peak altitude of 2,000 feet.

The National Audubon Society also hosts Bird Migration Explorer, a website that guides the heroic annual journeys made by over 450 bird species, and the challenges they face along the way. According to their site, one species that travels through Ohio will go as far south as the southern tip of Chile – the Hudsonian Godwit. However, many of those warblers I mentioned earlier are making their way toward Venezuela and other Caribbean destinations for the winter.

After meeting Kenn Kaufman, exploring our local parks with him, and reading “The Birds That Audubon Missed,” some other bird-related titles should have you chirping with delight.

• “What It’s Like to Be A Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing – What Birds Are Doing, and Why” by David Sibley. David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. This large-format, generously illustrated volume is geared as much to nonbirders as it is to the out-and-out obsessed, covering more than two hundred species.

• “Birds Art Life” by Kyo Maclear. After a difficult year in which her responsibilities to her ailing father, her children, and her career threatened to overwhelm her, Maclear found comfort and inspiration in urban birdwatching. When it comes to birds, Kyo Maclear isn’t seeking the exotic. Rather she discovers joy in the seasonal birds that find their way into view in city parks and harbors, along eaves and on wires.

• “Better Living Through Birding: Notes From A Black Man in the Natural World” by Christian Cooper. Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days as a writer for Marvel Comics to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas and the Himalayas. Accept the invitation into the wonderful world of birds, and what they can teach us about life, if only we stop and listen.

• “Birder, She Wrote” by Donna Andrews. Meg is relaxing in the hammock, taste-testing Michael’s latest batch of Arnold Palmers and watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed. Meg is drafted to accompany her grandmother and Deacon Washington of the New Life Baptist Church in their search for a long-lost African-American cemetery. Unfortunately, what they discover is not an ancient cemetery but a fresh corpse.

• “Other Birds” by Sarah Addison Allen. Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits – a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on Mallow Island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors and three ghosts. Each with their own story, longings, and an unwritten ending.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s web site at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked!