Birds and Beers is this Thursday, October 29 at 6:30pm at Merlin's Rest and we have something to celebrate. I've been testing the waters with OpenSky--creating a shop that only has products I like, use and enjoy. Well, I thought to myself: all the best bird companies give back to the birding community and I'd love the blog to be able to help with that. I told OpenSky that I wanted 10% of my share to go to young birder programs for the American Birding Association. They said, "Great, we'll match that!" What a cool company! I never had the chance to go to any kind of bird convention or one specifically for kids. I would love it if the shop gets enough sales to provide a full scholarship to some aspiring kid birder! So, if you have any birding needs, check out my OpenSky Store and know that all the things in there are products that I love and that you can see in my photos in my blog and that 20% of the profits are going to help fun young birder programs! I'm so excited about this and happy that the blog can help kids in some sort of way.

To help celebrate, OpenSky is offering discount codes for five products and you'll be able to get the discount code by attending Birds and Beers this Thursday. Wingscapes BirdCam, EZ lift hanger, Aspects Hummzinger Mini, Finch Flocker, Green Mesh Feeder.

As always, Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders to get together and talk some birds. Anyone from the hardcore lister to the backyard birder to someone who has heard about birding and wants to find out what it's about is invited to attend. If you have a bird blog--come and tell us about it! If you are a field trip leader--come and share your upcoming trips! Have a cool research project--we'd love to learn about what you are doing! Have a Christmas Bird Count in need of some volunteers--come ask us! It's low key and fun--many new birders to the area have found some great birding partners.