FEATHERED FRIENDS MEETINGS JUNE 2025 – MAY 2026
Chair, Robin Somers
This group meets the first Thursday of the month (9:00am) at area parks where they enjoy the
outdoors and local birds. If interested in joining this group, contact Chair Robin Somers to be added to their member list.
EACH UNDERLINED WORD IS A PICTURE OF FEATHERED FRIENDS ACTIVITIES
DECEMBER 4, 2025 – CHRISTMAS PARTY BRUNCH
PICS #1 #2 #3 #4
NOVEMBER 6, 2025 – Wilma Schiermeier Olentangy Wetlands Research Park
352 Dodridge St., Columbus, OH 43202
Lunch – Understory Restaurant, Neil Ave., Columbus OH.
Pics: WWC Birders and guide Gary, Checking charts and chatting, Water and Woods, Woods and Water, Goose on Dock
OCTOBER 2, 2025 – BLENDON WOODS METRO PARK
4265 E Dublin Granville Rd, Columbus, OH 43081
Lunch – Harry Buffalo, 6150 S Sunbury Rd., Westerville, OH 43081
Pics: Birding and chatting – a few ladies – group in wildlife center –
Mary Lou with ‘friend’ – and Joyce and Mary ‘selfie’
MEETING SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 – DEER HAVEN PARK
4183 Liberty Rd., Delaware, OH
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Bird watching followed by lunch at Buns Restaurant, Delaware
Deer Haven birds, blue jay, brown thrush on ground and house finch on perch
Gals in blind at Deer Haven.
Dorian Norstrom, Mary Butterfield, Robin Somers, Merci Katz, Beckie Pivirotto, Mary Lou Luebbe-Gerhart.
More gals in blind
Judy Harris, Mary Butterfield, Robin Somers, Merci Katz, Beckie Pivirotto, Mary Lou Luebber-Gearhart
FF Gals
MEETING AUGUST 7, 2025 – OHIO BIRD SANCTUARY
3774 Orweller Rd., Mansfield, OH
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Pictured: Sign for future display
WWC ladies with guide
WWC ladies on tour
FEATHERED FRIENDS MEETINGS JUNE, 2024 – MAY, 2025
MEETING 05-01-2025 SCENIC RIVER TRAIL
6911 Cleveland Avenue, Westerville, OH 43081
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Pictured: Kathleen Moore, Mary Butterfield, Helen O’Meara, Pat Apostolos, Candayce Peterson,
Anna Schimizze, Merci Katz, Mary Keller.
MEETING 04-03-2025 SHARON WOODS METRO PARK
6911 Cleveland Avenue, Westerville, OH 43081
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Sharon Woods is a mixture of forests and fields with towering oak, hickory and beech trees.
Thirteen (13) of us got out to Sharon Woods Metro Park where the forests were beginning to put out buds and the fields were welcoming back Bluebirds and Swallows to nesting boxes. We saw our ubiquitous Canada Geese, some Mallards, and a Pied-Billed Grebe on Sharon Lake. In the woods we saw Juncos, Robins, a Red Bellied Woodpecker and a Downey Woodpecker. Out on the fields we saw lots of “little brown birds” and Bluebirds, Swallows, a Northern Flicker, and a Red Winged Blackbird. And above it all a Turkey Vulture.
Lunch afterwards was at the Polaris Grill, where twelve (12) of us enjoyed a great meal.
Starting off. Mary Lou and Jackie front and center.
MEETING 02-06-2025 HIGHBANKS METRO PARK NATURE CENTER
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
pics of feathered friends and Club members and Joyce and Mary Lou
Highbanks Metro Park is a metropolitan park in Central Ohio, owned and operated by Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks. The park is named for its steep banks along the Olentangy River, the park’s most unique feature. Highbanks also features ten trails, picnic space, a nature center, sledding hill, and nature preserve. It also includes numerous ancient burial mounds and earthworks from the indigenous Adena culture. The park was established in 1973 and named a National Natural Landmark seven years later. In 2017, the park’s River Bluff Area opened to the public.
MEETING 12-05-2024 at Audubon Center
Grange Insurance Audubon Center
505 W Whittier St, Columbus, OH 43215
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
The Grange Insurance Audubon Center is a sanctuary for birds and nature lovers, set in parkland created from a formerly urban and industrial site in the heart of downtown Columbus, along the Scioto River. The center is a free public space and a pet-friendly indoor space.
MEETING 11-07-2024 at Blendon Woods Metro Park
4265 E. Dublin Granville Rd, Columbus, OH
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Birds at Thoreau Lake, Scenery, Ladies Pausing for Pic
Blendon Woods contains spectacular stream-cut ravines with exposed ripple rock sandstone and open fields surrounded by beech-maple and oak-hickory forests. The 653-acre park is a great place to see a variety of songbirds, waterfowl and other wildlife, especially the flock of wild turkeys meandering about in search of food. The 118-acre Walden Waterfowl Refuge with its 11-acre Thoreau Lake provides a sanctuary for hundreds of birds, ducks and other wildlife. Open year-round, it features two elevated observation shelters with spotting scopes for viewing waterfowl.
MEETING 09-05-2024 at Darby Creek Metro Park
1775 Darby Creek Drive, Galloway, OH
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
Naturalist, Jen Moore
September ‘Birders’
Galloway, Ohio. Battelle Darby Creek features more than 7,000 acres of forest, prairies and wetlands. It stretches along 13 miles of the Big and Little Darby creeks, both State and National Scenic Rivers. Besides the areas surrounding the creeks, there are also over 1,600 acres of restored wetlands and prairies. Bison have been reintroduced to the park and roam freely within two enclosed pastures.
MEETING 08-01-2024 at Dublin Kiwannis Park
6745 Riverside Drive, Dublin
Feathered Friends Chair, Robin Somers
In the car trunk fun, listening to guide, Joyce Lohner balancing on branch
Tree trunk carving
Lunch at Kitchen Social in Bridge Park area
Guide. chef, Mary Butterfield
The Kiwanis Riverway Park is located along the East shore of the Scioto River, at the north end of Griggs Reservoir. This park provides a boardwalk nature trail through the wetlands along the river, providing opportunities for viewing birds and flora. Funding for the park was provided by the Kiwanis Club. The Dublin Parks and Recreation Department assists in the maintenance and managing of this park area.
The bottomland woods of Kiwanis Riverway hosts a variety of rare and interesting species. The state-endangered bottomland aster is only found at Kiwanis Riverway and a few other sites in Ohio. The area is also home to the state-threatened satin brome grass, state-potentially threatened snow trillium, and white cedar.
Meeting 06-06-2024 Inniswood Metro Gardens,
940 S Hempstead Rd, Westerville, OH
Feathered Friends Robin Somers Chair
FEATHERED FRIENDS MEETINGS JUNE, 2023 – MAY, 2024
Celebrating 25 Years of Feathered Friends
Meeting 05-02-2024 Highbanks Park with refreshments and memories.
Honoring Mary Keller, who founded the Feathered Friends Interest Group May 6, 1999, for 25 years’ service as Chairman of Feathered Friends. The Group presented Mary with an Album of Memories with each member contributing an Artistic Personalized Page. Kathy Hamer and Jane Moore, both members of the original group are still members. Some of the memories the Group shared included 138 field trips and a number of overnight trips. A luncheon followed at Rodo’s Greek Taverna in Linworth.
Meeting 03-07-2024 River Bluff Area, Highbanks Metro Park,
8400 Olentangy River Rd, Columbus
Feathered Friends Robin Somers & Jody Ort, Co-Chairs
Meeting 02-01-2024 at home of Dorian Norstram
Speaker was Jessica Vaughan, Editor of Bird Watchers Digest
Worthington Municipal Building, ‘Birds of Prey’ 12-07-2023
presented by Carrie Keller an Outreach Naturalist for Senior Programs
Table of Stuffed Birds Carrie Demonstrates Bird Skull Red-tailed Hawk Skull Carrie and Birds
Red Trabue Nature Preserve, 6500 Post Rd., Dublin 11-02-2023.
Blues Creek Park, 9627 Fontanelle Rd., Ostrander 10-5-2023.
Hogback Ridge Park, 2656 Hogback Rd., Sunbury 06-01-2023.
The Wilds, Cumberland, Ohio, May 4-5, 2023.
Be Safe or Else, On the Tram, Tour Truck, Peek a Boo Pic
Kiwanis Riverway Park, 6245 Riverside Drive, Dublin (lunch at Cap City) 04-06-2023.
And On The Way Then Lunch
Thaddeus Kosciusko Park, Hard Rd. near Riverside Dr. 03-02-2023 Fungi
Battelle Darby Metro Park, October 6, 2022.
Whetstone Park of Roses, September 1, 2022.
