Holz brings fowl passion to Kewash Trail with migratory bird watching Saturday

Birds that live along the Kewash Trail may have felt extra eyes on them Saturday as Washington County Conservation hosted a migratory bird watch.

Naturalist Pam Holz said she does this every few years because her favorite subject is birds and she enjoys showing people the different species in the area. She said there are over 8,000 species of birds and 800 different species in Iowa.

Birds are what first got Holz interested in conservation and her father is the first one who got her interested in birds. She remembers watching them in the backyard with him and turned that love into a job.

Unfortunately, there were no participants in the bird watch this year but Holz encourages people to come out in the future or on their own time because being outside is important to overall health.

'I think it's important just to come out and be in nature,” she said. 'We are meant to be out here. We are designed to be out here, we are not designed to be in a cubicle. This is how we are built. I'm going to try to continue to get people out here because I think it's important.”

For those who want to get out and experience bird watching on their own, she suggests looking in multiple locations because different birds will thrive in different environments. For example, many woodland and residential birds, such as robins, can be found in Hayes Timber and migratory birds, like White Crowned Sparrows, along the Kewash itself.

She said even if bird watching is not someone's activity of choice, she encourages people to come outside because enjoying nature is what it's all about.