Martha Emmons, a member of the Sun City National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Agua Fria Chapter, presented a “Backyard Birds” program at a monthly chapter meeting. 

Emmons’ slide show presentation contained 26 of Mother Nature’s pollinators, which can be seen in the Sun City area. They need food, water and shelter. Certain birds can be observed only during certain times during the year due to migration and Arizona’s hot summers. Emmons would mimic calls of specific types of birds and pointed out specific characteristics of different birds, how birds run or fly, land and take off, and she explained how and where they nest and raise their babies. 

Emmons also talked about what foods they eat, which birds would eat from bird feeders and which birds would only eat off the ground. She also told how wunning water and dripping water attracts birds, how hawks are one of the enemies of birds and how, if one is unable to travel for birding, they can be watched on the internet via various bird cams such as at Cornell University, allaboutbirds.org/cams, or at a Gettysburg, PA, feeder on YouTube, at webcamera24.com/camera/usa/live-bird-feeder-cam.

Emmons was born in Michigan but she and her mother returned to Indiana to be near family when her father was drafted in 1943. Her interest in birds began when in third grade — she was pecked on the head when she got to close to a blue jay’s nest. She always looked for the first robin of spring. Emmons married her high school sweetheart and they just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Retirement gave Emmons and her husband time and opportunity to travel to find about 468 different species of birds. About half of the species have been found in Texas, Florida, Ohio, Michigan and South Dakota.

Emmons has been a NSDAR member since 2011 and is also a member of the Arizona Mayflower Society.

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