Winter 2014 Meeting

Friday, February 28, 2014 at 6:30pm
John Glenn Middle School 99 McMahon Rd, Bedford, Massachusetts 01730

Our guest speaker, Mr. Norman Smith, will present

“Snowy Owls to Saw-whet Owls”

Since 1981, Norman Smith has spent countless days and nights, in every imaginable weather condition, observing, capturing, banding and color marking Snowy Owls at Logan International Airport. Data has been collected on roosting, hunting and behavior while on their wintering grounds. Most recently satellite transmitters have been attached to owls to learn more about their movements. Find out what has been learned to date, what questions remain and how this project developed to include research on Saw-whet Owls.

Norman Smith is a self-taught naturalist who has worked for the Massachusetts Audubon Society since 1974. His current position is Director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and Norman Smith Environmental Education Center in Milton, Massachusetts. Norman has studied birds of prey for over 35 years, including rehabilitating the injured and successfully fostering over 1,000 orphaned hawk and owl chicks into adoptive nests. His ongoing long-term projects include trapping and banding migrating hawks and owls in the Blue Hills Reservation, banding nestling hawks and owls, and doing research on snowy owls and other raptors wintering at Boston's Logan International Airport. He has also traveled to Alaska to study snowy owls in their native tundra habitat. His research work has been published in National Geographic, National Wildlife, Ranger Rick, Yankee, Massachusetts Wildlife, Bird Observer, Birding, Sanctuary, Geo, Nature, Grolier Encyclopedia, Owls of the Northern Hemisphere and Owls of the World. His mission is to use the information gathered from his research to stimulate a passion in everyone he meets to help us better understand, appreciate and care for this world in which we live.

Preceding Norman’s presentation will be a viewing of “Epic Journeys: Tracking the Migrations of Shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere”, the latest documentary by Shawn Carey and Jim Grady of Migration Productions. Each year millions of shorebirds make an amazing round-trip journey between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Migration Productions’ newest video, “Epic Journeys”, looks at three shorebird species—Red Knot, Piping Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper—and the challenges these species face during each of their monumental annual treks. To view a trailer of the film, go to http://www.migrationproductions.com/video-epic-journeys/.

Social hour and light refreshments will begin at 6:30 PM. Meeting and lecture will begin promptly at 7:30 PM.

Members and guests are cordially invited. Admission and parking are free.

Birder’s Exchange Program Donations: please bring your used binoculars and other birding equipment. For more information, go to www.aba.org/bex/

Snowy photo by Shawn Carey

Winter 2013 Meeting

Following a cancellation by the Blizzard of 2013, our Winter Meeting was held on Friday, February 15th at the John Glenn Middle School auditorium in Bedford, MA. Our guest speaker was Mr. Wayne Petersen.

The social hour opened at 6:30 PM to a hallway filled with Club members eager to shake some cabin fever.

As usual, an assortment of snacks and beverages were on hand.

The meeting opened at 7:30 PM. BBC President, Mr. Eddie Giles, provided updates on the Club's 100th Anniversary. (Keep tabs on the BBC website for updates on the 100th.) Eddie then introduced and welcomed Wayne to the stage.

As part of our 100th Anniversary Celebration, Wayne gave a presentation entitled "The History of Birds in Massachusetts: Tracing a Century of Change". This presentation offered an historical look back at some of the many events that have affected Massachusetts bird populations since the start of the 20th century. These events included habitat disruption and modification, human influences, biological impacts, and most recently climate change. All have variously influenced the birds we currently see inhabiting the Commonwealth today.

A big thank you goes out to Wayne for spending the evening with us. His presentation was well received and very informative for Club members in attendance.

Fall 2012 Meeting

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 7:30 PM

Geological Lecture Hall, Harvard University

24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

Our guest speaker, Peter Trull, will present "The Symbiotic Relationship Between Humpback Whales and Marine Birds"

Photo by Peter Trull

Symbiotic relationships occur throughout Nature, some subtle, others compelling! In the open sea, Humpback Whales create bubble columns and bubble clouds that trap and drive small fish to the surface, providing an opportunity for a diversity of marine birds to share in the bounty. Symbiosis occurs in three forms, Mutualism, Commensalism and Parasitism.  In "The Symbiotic Relationship Between Humpback Whales and Marine Birds", we’ll see through vivid images how one form, commensalism, occurs in a dynamic display of power and beauty.  Learn about the behaviors and adaptations of birds, most notably the Gulls, Shearwaters and Petrels found in our coastal waters, as they coexist with Humpback Whales.  A diversity of marine birds and marine mammal species will be shown and described in close-up images.                                                                                                              

Pete Trull and Petrel

Peter Trull has been involved in Research and Education for over 35 years.  In the 70s an 80s he coordinated Massachusetts Audubon Society's coastal seabird monitoring program, assessing the breeding success and its limiting factors on 4 species of terns as well as piping plovers.  He conducted field research in Guyana and Surinam, studying the market trapping of Common Terns and Roseate Terns, working with local bird trappers in coastal villages where he hesitatingly admits he’s eaten Common Terns and 15 to 20 species of the sandpipers and plovers on your year list.  As Education Director at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, he developed programs and began studying Eastern Coyotes in 1989.  Through the 90's, as a researcher and Education Director at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, he developed and taught classes related to whales and marine birds and has completed over 2100 whale watching trips related to education and research.  He presently teaches 7th grade Science at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Harwich MA, and holds a Master’s Degree in Education.  He has written five books about Cape Cod natural history including, Coyotes In The Neighborhood, and his two newest books, Closer To The Great Whales and An Illustrated Guide To The Common Birds Of Cape Cod, published in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

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.

Birder's Exchange Program Donations: please bring your used binoculars and other birding equipment. For more information, go to the Birder's Exchange on the web.

An Evening With Greg Miller

The BBC's Winter Meeting was held on Friday, February 3, 2012 at the Bedford Middle School. Our guest speaker was Mr.Greg Miller. The social hour opened at 6:30 PM to a hallway filled with Club members eager to meet Greg. He was an absolute delight, shaking hands, autographing books, and mugging for the cameras. The meeting opened at 7:30 PM to an audience of nearly 200 people. BBC President, Mr. Eddie Giles, provided updates on several upcoming events, including the Club's 100th Anniversary. (Keep tabs on the BBC website for updates on the 100th.) Eddie then introduced and welcomed Greg to the stage.

Armed with only with a microphone, Greg took us on a journey through his life growing up as a birder in Ohio, outlined the inspiring events that lead up to his Big Year in 1998, and conveyed his personal experiences as he sought to break seeing 700 bird species in a single year. He then told us stories about being involved with Mark Obmascik's book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession and his experiences working on the 2011 20th Century Fox film The Big Year.

His tales took us from his initial phone conversations with the director, his first meeting with Jack Black while on the movie set, to embarrassing yet funny moments such as one where he accidentally dropped an extra large, chicken salad sub on the floor of Owen Wilson’s brand new Cadillac! Greg kept the audience completely enthralled and entertained.

His talk brought us many moments of laughter and heartfelt poignancy. By the time Greg finished, nearly two hours had passed. For those in the audience, it seemed as if time had stood still. Club members were eager to hear more from Greg as he shares our passion for birds and birding and he has so many inspiring messages to convey. Greg gave us an intimate view into what it means to be a birder. For those fortunate enough to attend that evening, it was a meeting that will be remembered for a long time to come.
To see more photos from the meeting, check out the photo album on the BBC Facebook page!

Winter Meeting 2012

Join us Friday, February 3, 2012 at 7:30 PM, for our annual winter meeting at the Bedford Middle School Auditorium,  McMahon Road, Bedford, Massachusetts.

A social hour and light refreshments will begin at 6:30 PM.

Photo by Cam Shaw

Our speaker for the evening will be Mr. Greg Miller.  In 1998, Greg zigzagged across the continent to try to see as many species of birds in one calendar year as possible. It was an incredible experience passing the 700-species mark—an achievement many birders aspire to in an entire lifetime. But there was competition. Two other birders, Sandy Komito and Al Levantin, also broke the 700-mark that same year.  Greg will entertain us with tales from that competitive experience, as well as stories of growing up as a birder, listing and how he came to do a big year.  He will also discuss Mark Obmascik's book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession and working on the 2011 20th Century Fox filmThe Big Year and his experience on the set with Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson.

Greg will be joining us for the social hour! He's looking forward to meeting Club members, posing for pictures and signing autographs! You DON'T want to miss THIS meeting!!

Members and guests are cordially invited.  Admission and parking are free. See here for directions.

Please bring your used binoculars and other biding equipment for the Birders' Exchange.  For information about the Birders' Exchange, check their website.

We invite you to join the BBC or renew your annual membership at our meeting.  See you there!

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!

Winter Meeting Directions

Directions to Bedford Middle School, McMahon Road, Bedford, MA:

From Route I-95/128: take exit 31B and follow Route 4/225 west towards Bedford for 2.5 miles and through six traffic lights to where Route 62 forks left. Follow Route 62 another 0.4 miles to St. Michaels Church on the left. Take the next left onto McMahon Road. The Middle School is just ahead 0.2 miles with a small parking area in front of the building and a much larger lot in the rear. Both lots have direct access to the lobby and auditorium.  Here are directions, with a MapQuest link, from the Middle School website.

Winter Meeting Presentations

From Eddie Giles:

I am really looking forward to this Members Night and working with club members to make it a success!  With all the great photos, trips, and stories BBC members have to tell I hope that we can continue to make it a Club tradition for years to come.

Contact me at egiles@brooklinebirdclub.org if you would like to present at Members' Night.

Please provide the following information:
(1) Title
(2) Format or program your presentation uses (e.g. PowerPoint, Excel, etc.).
(3) Length of time ***please note that since we will have up to six presentations we need to keep each presentation limited to 15 minutes.  If the number of presentations changes, and therefore time, I will let you know .***

Shawn Carey and Eric Smith will be heading up the technical part of Members Night and, as always, providing the BBC with fantastic audio/visuals. To help keep things running smoothly, Shawn and Eric have a set of requests/requirements for you to follow when setting up your presentations:

(1) You MUST name your pictures based on their name, numbering them in the order you want them shown (two digits, please). For example, ericsmith01.jpg, ericsmith02.jpg... and so on.

(2) You should resize your images to 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high.

(3) You *do not* have to fill the screen. If you want to use a portrait/vertical shot, just make it no taller than 768 pixels and no wider than 1024 pixels.

(4) It would be helpful if you put a "cover image" that says at least your name as the first slide. This isn't required, but it will help the audience know whose pictures are who's.

(5) Please bring no more than 40 images if you plan on talking while showing images, but the actual number varies depending on how much you'll say. If you are not going to talk, you can bring a few more. But please be mindful of your 15 minutes.

(6) Plan to give your presentations to Eddie 1/2 hour before the meeting starts on a memory stick/thumb drive/cruzer. Eddie will bring your presentations to Shawn and will coordinate the presentation order. Eddie will let you know the line up once she gets your presentation titles.

(7) Each presenter will have 15 minutes to show their images. You do not *have* to fill the 15 minutes!

(8) You can talk while showing your images or not, that is your choice. You do not *have* to talk (especially if that would keep you from showing!)

(9) If you plan on talking during your images, please practice your presentation ahead of time. Just flip through the images and say (out loud) what you will say. You're presentation will go much smoother, it will help confirm the slide order is correct, and you can make sure you're not over 15 minutes. You'll almost certainly find that it takes longer than you expect!

If you have any questions at all about the above requests/requirements please contact me.  

Here is some additional information from Shawn and Eric that may be helpful:

Most digital cameras come with software that let you edit your images to some degree. If you don't like that software there are several free programs that can do it.

For Windows:
- Picasa from Google is quite good. It is both an editor and an image organizer. http://picasa.google.com/
- Irfanview is a full editor that can crop and resize images. Not the easiest to use, but not "hard" either. http://www.irfanview.com/

For Mac:
- All modern Macs have iPhoto which will let you crop and resize images.

For Linux:
- You can use Gimp, but it isn't the easiest to use
- There is a version of Picasa that is available. http://picasa.google.com/

Fall 2010 Meeting

Fall Meeting - October 15, 2010

Please join us on for our fall meeting on Friday, October 15 at 7:30 PM at the Geological Lecture Hall at Harvard University, 24 Oxford St, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Wildlife Photographer Shawn Carey will present “Scenes from the BP Gulf Oil Disaster”, firsthand accounts, images and video of the Louisiana Coast where he documented the effects of the nation's largest oil disaster.  Joining in the discussion will be our special guest, Drew Wheelan, American Birding Association Gulf Coast Conservation Coordinator.

Members and guests are cordially invited. Admission is free.

Parking at the 52 Oxford Street Parking Garage will NOT be available.  For alternate parking, transportation options, directions and additional program details, see below.

Donations to the Birder's Exchange Program will be collected.   Please bring your used binoculars and other birding equipment.  For more information on the Birder's Exchange Program, go to www.aba.org/bex/ *

OUR SPEAKERS

Shawn Carey moved for his home in Erie, Pennsylvania to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986. He started watching birds in 1988 and over time he combined his interest in birds with photography skills. By 1994 he and good friend Jim Grady started Migration Productions as a way to present their multi-image slide presentations to a live audience. Programs have been presented to natural history and photographic organizations including Mass Audubon, ABA, Manomet, HMANA, Eastern Mass Hawk Watch, Waterbird Society and many local bird and photo clubs.  Migration Productions offers the finest quality bird/wildlife programs with stunning photographs, video, sound tracks, and interviews with many people involved with bird watching and natural history topics. For additional information about Migration Productions, visit their web site: http://www.migrationproductions.com Shawn's photos have been published in the Boston Globe, New York Times, Science magazine, Mass Audubon Sanctuary magazine, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary magazine and many others over the last 10+ years.

In 1997 he started teaching bird photography workshops (Fundamentals of Bird Photography) for Massachusetts Audubon and four years ago began teaching a summer three day field school workshop at Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary.

Drew Wheelan grew up chasing butterflies and catching frogs in the swamps of Southern Rhode Island. He graduated from the Evergreen State College in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science.  Evergreen does not have majors, but his course equivalent would have earned him a degree in wildlife biology and a minor in Spanish.  Since 1996, Drew has worked with birds throughout the United States, as well as in Amazonian Peru and Ecuador, as well as Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.

In the year 2000, as Drew was preparing to enter graduate school he discovered that he had cancer while in one of the most remote regions of the Amazon.  The subsequent fight with this illness lent to him a fresh perspective on life and also led him away from a life in academia.  Since 2000 Drew has continued to work with birds, but has broadened his scope a bit to include fisheries work, in research as well as harvesting.   This work has included studies in Salmon ecology and habitat on the east slope of the Washington Cascades as well as lobster recovery in New England following the North Cape oil spill.

Drew has always thought that he has a unique view of life and an important voice to share with the world, and has endeavored to begin a writing career for the last 9 years.  His unique blend of experience and a desire to write have combined to offer a perfect niche for his reporting on the Gulf Oil Disaster.  Drew arrived in the Gulf on May 16th to report on the spill’s effects on birds and bird habitat for the American Birding Association. Since that time he has strived to produce an objective and truthful representation of what he observed.

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TRANSPORTATION AND PARKING

Harvard University has reserved its parking facilities for parents weekend, so our usual parking at the 52 Oxford Street Parking Garage is NOT available.

Parking is available by permit through Harvard University for the night of our event for a 5 dollar fee.   The closest parking is directly across the street from the lecture hall location at the SEAS parking lot and alternative parking locations are available if you choose.  You must make your own arrangements.  Instructions to obtain a parking permit are below.  Please note that this is the same arrangement we had for the October 2007 lecture meeting at the MCZ.

As always, parking is also available on the street.

The best way to get into Harvard Square is by public transportation.  MBTA System Map is available here - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/ If you are taking the MBTA Subway – take the Red Line to the Harvard Square Station and then a short walk across historic Harvard Yard to the MCZ Lecture Hall on 24 Oxford Street - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/stations/?stopId=12084 You can also take the MBTA Commuter Rail from areas in and around your neighborhood.  For those of you coming into to South Station you can access the Red Line directly from the station and proceed to the Harvard Square Station.  For those of you coming into North Station - take the Green Line to Park Street or Orange Line to Downtown Crossing to access the Red Line and the Harvard Square Station. MBTA Commuter Rail Info - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/rail/

PARKING PERMITS

Parking permits can be obtained for the BBC Meeting Friday 10/15/10 at Harvard.  A one evening parking permit can be obtained through the Harvard website.  Cost is $5.

Parking permits go on sale, starting 2 weeks before the date of the meeting – October 2.

In order to obtain a permit, follow these steps:

1.    Go to https://www2.uos.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/permit/purchase.pl

2.      Click on “Visitor” (unless you are a Harvard employee)

3.     Register - If this is your first time using the system, click "Click here to register".  Complete registration information including user name, password, name, phone # and email address -   If you have used the system before, login with your user name and password

4.     Enter data about the event: -  Department: OE/MCV/Herbaria, Code: 2017

5. Select a parking lot from dropdown menu:   - SEAS 5:00 p.m-11:30 p.m. weeknight (closest lot, across the street  from the MCZ - see link to map on this screen) - if the SEAS (Sch. of Engineering and Applied Sciences) permits are sold out, parking is also available in the Littauer lot (code is LITT).  The LITT lot is also across the street from the MCZ.  Permits begin at 7 PM for this lot.

6      Affiliation:   Event Participant  - Brookline Bird Club

7.     Permit date:  October 15, 2010

8.     Enter  Plate Number

9.    Complete payment  information

Enter “parking map” in the search field for a map of all parking lots, if you wish.

IMPORTANT:   Print the permit and display on dashboard the night of the meeting.