ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BROOKLINE BIRD CLUB - April 15, 2011

Join us for the Brookline Bird Club Annual Meeting on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 7:30 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall,
24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.

Julie Ellis Ph.D. will present “Ecology of Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls in Coastal New England”.  This presentation will cover the ecology and natural history of these two species of gulls in island ecology, including their reproductive biology, competitive and predatory interactions, dispersal, and their impacts on coastal environments.  Dr. Ellis is a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and conducts her research through the Shoals Marine Laboratory at the Isles of Shoals, a 9-island archipelago located about 6 miles from Portsmouth, N.H.  More on our speaker below.

Members and guests are cordially invited. Admission is free. Parking is free at the 52 Oxford Street garage (opposite Everett St). Tell the guard you are attending the BBC meeting.

Please bring your used binoculars and other birding equipment for the Birder’s Exchange (more information).


OUR SPEAKER:

Dr. Julie Ellis, Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, is Director of the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET); A more detailed description of Dr. Ellis and her work can be found at the SEANET website and blog

Dr. Julie Ellis also has a gull blog where she posts sightings of gulls banded at Appledore Island, Maine.

Dr. Ellis is providing opportunities to band gulls via the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine in May and July.   In May, adult gulls are banded,  band numbers and nest locations of previously banded birds are recorded, and gull nests are mapped using a GPS unit.  Sarah Courchesne, her colleague will be leading this group, and will also do some lectures and a wet lab on marine bird anatomy and biology.  There will be a similar course for one week in July during which pre-fledgling gulls will be banded.  No previous experience in bird banding is required in these courses -  in fact, the participants will not actually band the birds  they will help capture and restrain them, help to mark nests, and walk around the island recording band numbers and GPS coordinates for previously banded birds.  It should be a lot of fun and participants will learn quite a bit from just being on the island.  It’s not at all like songbird banding, for those who have done that  capturing and holding adult gulls is quite an experience!