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Spring 2008 Monday Night Seminar Schedule
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! If you can't make the seminars you can also watch them online. Most of our speakers consent to being filmed, and their talks are usually posted to the web within a few weeks--check out our growing collection in the MNS video archives.
Click any month to jump ahead:
January February March April May
January 14, 2008
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Kevin McGowan
Share your photos night
Back by popular demand, this meeting will feature photos submitted by Cayuga Bird Club members from their birding excursions around the basin and beyond.
February 4, 2008
Andre Desrochers
Professor, Université Laval,
Québec
Conservation of Boreal forest birds and the relevance of behavioral ecologists
Many birds of the Boreal Forest are in trouble, and finding out why is a difficult task. André will illustrate how behavioral ecologists may – or may not ‐ help boreal bird conservation in the face of increasing human impact, but also of conceptual and technological advances in Behavioral Ecology. He will specifically address the loss of old growth, habitat isolation, and the quality of remaining forests for raising young birds successfully. Those issues will be illustrated mostly his lab's work at the Forêt Montmorency, Québec.
February 11, 2008
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Matt Young
Naturalist
Bird irruptions, resource partitioning and finch nesting events in NY
Matt will talk about the historical status of siskins and crossbills, their current status, red crossbill taxonomy, theories of origin of irruption, finch nesting events and cycles, food sources, comparisons between the Adirondacks and the Eastern Appalachian Plateau and management recommendations for these species.
February 18, 2008
Eric Strauss
Director of Environmental Studies,
Boston College and Science Director, The Urban Ecology Institute
The frontier of Urban Ecology and the challenge of rejuvenating America's cities
Half the world's population and three-quarters of Americans now live in cites. This talk will focus on the nascent field of urban ecology which emphasizes the interface between the natural and built environment, and provides an interdisciplinary framework for investigators, community based practitioners and social entrepreneurs to work collaboratively towards the goal of achieving healthy urban neighborhoods in which the ecological infrastructure remains healthy and intact.
February 25, 2008
Irby Lovette
Associate Professor and Director of the
Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program,
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Desperate housewives with feathers: sex and infidelity, cooperation and conflict in the family lives of birds
The common perception of birds as stable monogamous couples is downright wrong. Featuring research done at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this talk will explore the science behind the soap-opera-like behavior of familiar birds: why do most females cheat on their mates? Why, in some species, do kids commonly stick around to help raise their younger siblings? What makes a male bird particularly sexy?
March 3, 2008
Robert Prys-Jones
Collections Manager, British Natural
History Museum
The ornithological frauds of Richard Meinertzhagen
The British colonel Richard Meinertzhagen contributed over 20,000 specimens to the British Natural History Muesum that were collected during his globe-trotting life as a soldier and scientist. Robert will discuss the detective work and forensic research that lead to the surprising discovery of a fifty-year-old story of theft, deceit, and fraud that rocked the foundations of our understanding of this extensive collection.
March 10, 2008
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Stephen Kress
Vice President for Bird Conservation
for the National Audubon Society
Birding around the world In 26 days
On Valentines day 2006, Steve Kress served as naturalist for a group of 88 passengers who traveled around the world on a private jet, visiting some of earths most memorable places. In 26 days, the group visited, Peru, Easter Island, Samoa, Australia, Cambodia, India, Tibet, Tanzania, Morroco and Egypt. Steves photographic show illustrates some of the birds and highlights of this remarkable adventure.
March 24, 2008-***CANCELLED***
Erick Greene
Professor, University of Montana
Behavioral ecology of communication in birds
Recent studies are uncovering that many birds can convey a previously unsuspected amount of information to each other in their vocalizations. In this talk Erick will focus on the amazing world of vocal communication in Lazuli Buntings and Black-capped chickadees, using their varied sounds to show the complexity of communication in these common species.
March 31, 2008
Gerald MacDougall
Manager, Fish and Wildlife section, Prince Edward Island
Kiptu (Bald Eagle) the protector of the Mi'kmaq people
Gerald’s talk will highlight the importance of the bald eagle to the indigenous people of Atlantic Canada. He will talk about the extirpation of the eagle in Prince Edward Island and its subsequent return as well as discussing mortality in the population and what the future may hold for this magnificent bird in Atlantic Canada.
April 7, 2008
(Art Opening prior to seminar, 5:30PM-7:00PM)
Julie Zickefoose
Artist and Naturalist
Letters from Eden: A Year at Home, In the Woods
In an intimate, story-telling setting, author Julie Zickefoose talks about her latest book, Letters from Eden. Through anecdote and readings, she reveals the nature of her deep connection with wild things and the places they inhabit. Julie likes to describe her true work as noticing the little things that many overlook. Photographs from her 80-acre Appalachian "Eden," and watercolors from the book provide a continuous visual backdrop to stories that are poignant, searing, and sometimes hilarious.
April 14, 2008
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Maiken Winter
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Conservation Science Program
Local, regional, and global issues in grassland bird conservation
Grassland birds are declining at a steeper and more persistent rate than any other group of birds in North America. What factors do we need to consider to reverse these population declines? Are these patterns just typical for North American grassland birds? Maiken will describe conservation issues on various scales that are essential when developing grassland conservation plans. These issues include both local effects such as patch size and management, as well as global issues such as agricultural intensification and climate change.
April 21, 2008
Ted Floyd
Editor, Birding magazine
Charles Darwin, Roger Tory Peterson, and the future of birding
The year 2009 will mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds and the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, arguably the two most important books in the history of birding. This seminar will identify a major conflict between Peterson's and Darwin's worldviews, then look at how tension between Peterson and Darwin was largely avoided in the 20th century, and finally examine how tension between Peterson and Darwin is inevitable in the early 21st century--with significant consequences for how we appreciate and understand birds and nature.
April 28, 2008
Rosalie Winard
Artist and Naturalist
An itinerant photographer of the wetlands
Imagine banding 2,500 white pelican chicks at Chase Lake NWR in North Dakota, airboating on the Great Salt Lake amongst avocets, black-necked stilts and white-faced ibises, or sleeping in the middle of the Platte River in Nebraska surrounded by thousands of vociferous sandhill cranes. With her camera, Rosalie has witnessed and documented avian adaptations to habitat encroachment and the sudden disappearance and re-emergence of bird colonies. She will accompany her talk with photographs from her new book, Wild Birds of the American Wetlands, as well as photos from her personal archives.
May 5, 2008
Martjan Lammertink
Conservation Science Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Spectacular Southeast Asian woodpeckers: niche evolution and logging responses in highly diverse communities
In rainforests of Southeast Asia more woodpecker species co-exist than elsewhere in the world. Fourteen species routinely share one habitat, including spectacular woodpeckers like the Greater Flameback, Orange-backed Woodpecker, and Great Slaty Woodpecker. Martjan presents research results and photos from several years of fieldwork with woodpeckers in Indonesia and Myanmar. He examined niche evolution among woodpecker species in recent man-made forest fragments and on small islands, isolated since the last ice age, that experienced local loss of species over different time scales. He also assessed the impact of rainforest logging on woodpeckers.
May 12, 2008
Cayuga Bird Club Meeting
Speaker TBA