The orioles have been feasting on the rows of strawberries at Gary and Karen Lawson’s farm east of Vinland.

“They’re really having a field day,” said Karen Lawson, fiddling with a pair of binoculars in hopes of catching an up-close look at the black-and-bright orange beauties.

The Lawson property, located along Douglas County Road 460, is a quiet piece of land for birds to call home.

“We have a lot of mockingbirds out here,” she said. “Cardinals and bluebirds, too.”

The Lawsons are opening their bird-friendly homestead to the public from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday as part of a homemade tribute to the National Audubon Society, which is commemorating its 100th year of avian conservation.

The berry farm is one and a half miles east of Vinland on Douglas County Road 460.

Plans call for Karen Lawson’s older brother, Jay Newton, to lead bird-finding walks on the property, which is a mix of grassland and woods.

Newton, who lives in El Dorado, is a past president of the Wichita Audubon Society and is active in the Kansas Ornithological Society and the American Birding Assn.

Settled in 1856 by Gary Lawson’s great-great-grandfather, Gnud Anderson, the 160-acre homestead features a house made of cut sandstone and a barn built a couple of feet off the ground.

Karen Lawson walks around the 149-year-old Lawson Brothers Farm farm east of Vinland, where a paradise of elusive birds can be found. Gary and Karen Larson will open their property to the public Saturday as a tribute to the National Audubon Society, which is celebrating its 100th year.

“It’s called a stabbur, which is a Norwegian-style shed,” Lawson said. “We’ve had people from the Norwegian Heritage Society in Kansas City tell us it’s the only one of its kind in this area.”

The Lawsons — she’s a secretary at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 2104 W. 15th St., he’s an engineer at Kansas University — are not active in the Jayhawk Audubon Society. Still, longtime member Joyce Wolf welcomed news of the celebration.

“Anytime private land is opened up to the public, it’s a great opportunity,” Wolf said.