Olympia Fields takes top honors in Birdwatching Open

SELKIRK, N.Y. - Birdwatching teams from 82 golf courses participated in the sixth annual North American Birdwatching Open hosted by Audubon International May 10. Collectively, the teams identified 319 species in the 24-hour event. The average number of birds sighted per course was 41, with a range from 8 to 94. The results provide a snapshot of bird activity on golf courses at the height of bird migration in May.

Olympia Fields Country Club, site of last month’s U.S. Open, led the way with a list of 94 species seen on the course in an 11-hour period. Birders at the course identified 22 species of warblers and five species of vireos, as well as numerous wading birds, swallows and sparrows.