A “bird sanctuary” might be the last place you’d think we would take our active four boys. Yet, that’s precisely what we did. They were hoping to spot an Eagle at this urban migratory spot — the first National Audubon Center to be located so close to a city.
Why put a bird sanctuary so close to the city?
They didn’t. Well, no human decided to do that, anyway.
The birds had already made up their minds. For centuries, this place, just 10 miles south of downtown, has been a bird “hot-spot” on the migratory bird flyway. Birds continued to stop and rest here, even after the spot became an industrial wasteland of warehouses and parking lots. Fascinating, isn’t it?
Today, all traces of concrete are gone. A few years ago, the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, was reclaimed as the proper bird sanctuary it truly is. The park also holds the environmentally-friendly  Grange Insurance Audubon Center, built entirely out of reclaimed materials, a roof that captures rainwater, geothermal heating, and windows that clean themselves — OK, the window thing was an exaggeration… but they have images of birds etched onto the glass, which keeps birds from flying into the building.
But read more here, about why, on the Discovering Ohio blog, four active boys find this “bird sanctuary” so exhilarating…
