“Bird Migration: Why, Where, When and How Birds Migrate” will be the topic Saturday, March 5, the sixth in a series of nine classes for Backyard Birders.

From 10 a.m.-noon at the Dungeness River Audubon Center, Railroad Bridge Park, Ken Leuthold will lead an exploration of the astonishing world of long-distance flying, without any stopovers to rest or refuel.

Imagine an eight-day, 7,000 mile, non-stop flight every autumn to New Zealand for the Alaska bar-tailed godwits, compared to the three and a half day record of an unmanned solar-powered aircraft!

Even though the godwits may not stop over in Sequim, soon birders will be seeing hummingbirds and swallows returning from their winters in the south. Most of the swans which have spent their winter here have left for the north.

The next class in this series is on Saturday, April 9, “Spring Landscaping for Birds” with Joe Holtrop, executive director of the Clallam Conservation District.

Two classes remain: May 14 “Spring Sounds” and June 11 “Out of the Nest.”

(The location of the class was missing in the print edition of this story. — MD)