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Monday Night Seminars
Seminars typically begin at 7:30 P.M. (doors open at 7:00) in the Visitors’ Center Auditorium; nights with Cayuga Bird Club meetings, the seminars tend to start closer to 8:00 P.M., and are preceded by Club business. As always, admission is free and open to all. Hear great talks, meet the speakers, and enjoy browsing at WildBirds Unlimited!
Fall 2008 Seminar Schedule
September 8, 2008 (Cayuga Bird Club Meeting)
Kim Bostwick
Curator, Birds and Mammals Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates
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Research Associate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
"Tinkering with Light to Wear a Rainbow"
Come learn how nature's fairest creatures use feathers to disassemble and reconstruct light for their own purposes. In this lecture Kim will showcase the results of the last decade of work in bird coloration to break down the bewildering array of feather colors into a small but fascinating set of ways birds manipulate light to color their bodies.
September 15, 2008
John C. RobinsonPresident, On My Mountain, Inc."Birding for Everyone: Changing the Face of Environmental Conservation Through Birding"
What happens when it is no longer species or unique habitats, but environmental conservation itself that is endangered? In his latest book, Birding for Everyone, award-winning ornithologist and wildlife biologist John C. Robinson explains why minority involvement in environmental issues will become ever more vital to long-term conservation efforts and the preservation of our natural resources. |
September 22, 2008
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Tim GallagherEditor-in-Chief, Living Bird Magazine, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology"Falcon Fever: a modern falconer's search for the heart and soul of an ancient sport"
Best known for being one of the rediscoverers of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, author and Living Bird editor Tim Gallagher has another passion that has driven him since childhood - the ancient sport of falconry. Gallagher's most recent adventure - detailed in his new book, Falcon Fever - was to follow in the footsteps of 13th-century Emperor Frederick II - a scientist, architect, poet, musician, and all-around Renaissance man 200 years before the birth of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Frederick was also the greatest falconer who ever lived. His talk will be illustrated with photographs of Frederick's spectacular castles and hunting areas, stunning hand-painted illustrations from his illuminated manuscript on falconry, and pictures of modern falconers hunting in the same style as Frederick II. |
September 29, 2008
Rob BierregaardVisiting Distinguished Research Professor, Biology Dept., UNC-Charlotte"Sex (and Owls and Mice) and the City: The Ecology of Suburban Barred Owls"
In this talk Rob summarizes 8 years of research into the ecology of suburban and rural Barred Owls in the North Carolina Piedmont. Along with three graduate students (two theses defended, one in the works), he has conducted the most intensive study of Barred Owls undertaken anywhere. Using radio telemetry they have measured home range sizes and dispersal patterns of a thriving population of Barred Owls resident in suburban Charlotte, NC. They have data from well over 200 nesting efforts and have recently begun studying prey habits via video cameras mounted in nests and nest boxes. |
October 6, 2008
Chris NormentProfessor, SUNY-Brockport"Return to Warden’s Grove: Science, Desire, and the Lives of Harris’s Sparrows"
This talk will feature a Power Point presentation introducing Dr. Norment’s doctoral dissertation research on Harris’s Sparrows at Warden’s Grove, in the Canadian Arctic, followed by a reading from his new book, Return to Warden’s Grove. The talk will deal with the basic natural history and ecology of Harris’s Sparrows, the difficulties and pleasures of conducting ornithological research in an isolated wilderness setting, and what might be called the “aesthetics” of basic scientific research. A review of Return to Warden’s Grove appeared in the April 11, 2008 issue of Science--you can read it here. |
October 13, 2008 (Cayuga Bird Club Meeting)
Andrea Townsend
PhD. candidate, Evolutionary Biology Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
"The Secret Sex lives of American Crows"
Although the cooperatively breeding crows of Ithaca appear socially monogamous, their mating system is not so straight-forward (and can seem down-right lascivious!). Andrea will talk about the patterns and consequences of mating decisions in American crows, and raise the issue of conflict between the sexes.
October 20, 2008
Marie ReadWildlife Photographer"One Good Tern—photographic adventures with Black Terns"
For the past two summers, acclaimed wildlife photographer Marie Read has photographed the lives of Black Terns in the secluded marshes of Upstate New York. Come and learn about these beautiful and threatened birds, and the other creatures that share their wetland home, through Marie's stunning photographs. |
October 27, 2008
Nathan Senner and Eric LinerCornell Lab of Ornithology"Tracking The Elusive Hudsonian Godwit"
Nathan will talk about how his work in Chile fits in with the broader goals of the Pacific Shorebird Migration Project. PSMP is a multi-national collaborative project that is using satellite telemetry to monitor the migration of shorebirds throughout the Pacific Basin. Eric will introduce a new high definition video production on Nathan’s work with Hudsonian Godwits. |
November 3, 2008
Rob CahillEditor, eBird Guatemala"Cloud Forest Conservation in Guatemala"
Rob’s work focuses on avian habitat conservation and reforestation in the villages surrounding the last great cloud forests of Guatemala: the Sierra Yalijux. This mountain range is home to the densest population of the Resplendent Quetzal in Mesoamerica. Rob will discuss the work of Proeval Raxmu and their ongoing bird monitoring program that makes use of the observations of local Maya farmers. |
November 10, 2008 (Cayuga Bird Club Meeting)
Martha Fischer
Audio Archivist, Macaulay Library, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
"Birds of the High Arctic"
Sanderlings, Purple Sandpipers, and White-rumped Sandpipers were the hot targets for an expedition to the Canadian High Arctic. Gerrit Vyn (audio production engineer, photographer, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and Martha Fischer took their microphones to Bathurst Island and recorded these birds, and a few others, too. Martha will show you some sight and sounds from the land of the midnight sun.
November 17, 2008
Eduardo Inigo-EliasCoordinator , Neotropical Biodiversity Conservation Initiative, Cornell Lab of Ornithology"Las Marias: the place you'd never want to be to see the birds you want to see"
Limited avifauna surveys have been conducted in the Archipielago of the Tres Marias Islands in Mexico. The Maria Islands include four islands and two small barren islands of tropical dry forest ecosystems with over 130 species of birds, including several endemic subspecies such as the Mexican Parrotlet and the Yellow-headed Parrot. In this talk Eduardo will present research results and conservation efforts from the 2007-2008 field seasons for the islands' avifauna, particularly with both psittacine species. Eduardo also will present photos and sounds of the birds of Tres Marias Islands. |
December 8, 2008 (Cayuga Bird Club Meeting)
Ken RosenbergDirector, Conservation Science Program Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology"The State of Our Birds: A Continental Perspective"
Ken will discuss bird conservation priorities and issues in New York in the context of global threats faced by birds throughout North America, as well as complex conservation landscape of the 21st century. |
