RIPON — The Ripon Garden Club on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 10 a.m. will present a program, on backyard birds during a meeting at the American Legion Hall, 206 Stockton Ave. in Ripon.

The speaker is Esther Schmierer.

Schmierer was born in Lodi, and received her Bachelor of Science Degree from

UC Berkeley.  She worked at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica where she met a married her then husband who was in graduate school.  After her husband finished his schooling, they moved to Salt Lake City and she worked in the Experimental Biology Department at the University of Utah and her husband taught anthropology. He was asked to join the staff at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada to do field work in Belize. 

They moved to Toronto splitting their time between Toronto and living in the Belizean Jungle each year to excavate Maya ruins. Esther believes it was while in Belize her interest in birds grew.  Learning about many of the exotic species was enhancing for her; especially when ornithologists from the museum used their field camp as a base for studies.

After her husband died, she moved back to Lodi to look after her aging mother.  She joined the Audubon Society, became a docent with the California Department of Fish and Game.   For 19 years she has lead the Sandhill Crane tours.  She has also been on the steering committee for the annual Sandhill Crane Festival since the festival started 18 years ago.

Schmierer has a keen interest in gardening.  She has been a Garden Club Member since 1998 and president of Lodi Club for the years 2007-2009.  An interesting note is that her now husband Gordon Schmierer is the next Lodi Garden Club president and will be the first male president for the Lodi club.