MARQUETTE — The topic of the Laughing Whitefish Audubon Society’s next monthly meeting will be “Spring Tune-Up on Bird Identification,” presented by Gary Palmer, avid birder and professional migration counter.

The program will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 at the Peter White Public Library’s George Shiras Room located on third floor.

Join for a refresher on the birds returning to the north woods this spring. Palmer will present an overview of many of the migrants that can be found throughout the Upper Peninsula as they travel back to their breeding grounds. From golden eagles and northern goshawks to Blackburnian warblers and indigo buntings, participants will look at the stunning diversity visible at this special time of year and tips to help identify them in the field.

Palmer has been a longtime member of Laughing Whitefish Audubon Society, serving on the board since 2012. He fell in love with birding over a decade ago during a spring field ornithology course at Northern Michigan University and has been hooked ever since. Palmer spent several seasons as a professional migration counter at sites such as Whitefish Point and Hawk Ridge and summers censusing breeding birds in Illinois and Idaho. Palmer recently returned from an eight-month adventure in Costa Rica helping with a scarlet macaw breeding program.

The Laughing Whitefish Audubon Society, founded in 1992, represents birders from Marquette and Alger counties. LWAS engages in a variety of community involvement, including monthly programs, field trips, bird counts, quarterly newsletters, and maintaining a robust bird feeding station at MooseWood Nature Center on Presque Isle.

For information on the Laughing Whitefish Audubon Society: https://laughingwhitefishaudubon.com