A workshop where visitors learn to interpret bird language and avian behaviour to understand the natural landscape, part of the Naturalists at the Ney series.
Naturalists at the Ney: Bird Language, The Real Twitter Feed is at the Elisabet Ney Museum on Saturday, October 3, from 10 AM to 12 PM. It's part of the museum's Naturalists at the Ney series, which turns the grounds into a living classroom. The session is a workshop on bird language—how to listen to birds and interpret what they're saying in the wild.
You'll learn to read avian behavior to spot disturbances on the landscape: circling hawks, ground predators, or approaching humans. The session also shows you how to settle into a "bird sit" of your own, something you can take home to a back garden or a local greenway. It's less about identifying species by sight and more about understanding the signals birds send to each other.
The venue itself is worth a look if you haven't spent much time there. The museum was the home and studio of Elisabet Ney (1833–1907), the German sculptor who moved to Austin in 1882. She became an early leader of the Texas Women's Movement and a fierce advocate for civil rights, education, and the arts. In 1892 she bought property in the city and founded her studio, Formosa, where she sculpted figures like Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston alongside European names including King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Otto von Bismarck, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Jacob Grimm. Her friends preserved the studio and its contents after her death in 1907, founding the Texas Fine Arts Association in her memory.
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The workshop runs from 10 AM to 12 PM on Saturday, October 3, at the Elisabet Ney Museum, 304 E. 44th St, Austin, TX 78751.
