“How Birds Created the World” – September 18
The Redbud Audubon Society is pleased to welcome bestselling author, Randi Minetor, as the first presenter for the 2025-26 speaker series starting on Thursday, Sept. 18. The Zoom program will start at 7 p.m. Minetor will present a power point focusing on stories of “How Birds created the World,” showing how birds influenced the culture and myths of people world-wide.
Ancient Egyptians believed that the Earth began as an egg laid by a giant goose. Ojibwa people of America’s northern plains tell of a Great Flood that swept away the world’s evils, and the bird that braved the deep waters to bring a bit of soil up from the bottom to restart the continent. European scientists once believed that geese survived the winters by turning themselves into barnacles and adhering to the bottoms of ships, transforming back into birds in spring. These and many other tales told in Randi Minetor’s latest book, The Complete Language of Birds, bring us back to a time when birds seemed like magical beings with the answers to so many of the world’s questions.
Registration for the program is required and can be accomplished by clicking on the link above.
Randi Minetor writes books for the Birdfinding and Best Easy Bird Guides series for Falcon Guides/Globe Pequot Press and is the author of Backyard Birding and Butterfly Gardening for Lyons Press. Her most recent book, The Complete Language of Birds, is an encyclopedia that unites classic illustrations, science, folklore, and mythology about more than 400 bird species around the world. She has written for Birding Magazine, is a regional report editor for North American Birds, and served for three years as president of the Rochester Birding Association in New York State.
Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Randi Minetor discovered the backcountry wonders of America’s national parks in 1992 with her husband, photographer/lighting designer Nic Minetor. That first trip changed her life, and by 2000, the Minetors had pledged to see all 391 (now 432) national parks in their lifetimes. They found a way to subsidize this passion in 2006, when they began writing and photographing books on the parks for The Globe Pequot Press (now Rowman & Littlefield). Today Randi has written more than 90 books, including seven books in the nonfiction “Death in the National Parks” series, ten hiking guides in New York State, several bird-finding guides, and even reference books on health topics. To date, they have visited 364 national parks. In addition, Nic’s photography appears in eight Quick Reference Guides to the Birds, Trees, and Wildflowers of New York City and New York State, and the Trees and Wildflowers of the Mid-Atlantic States. The Minetors live in Rochester, NY.
