April Program Rescheduled

With this wonderful opportunity to hear David Sibley in person, SVAS is cancelling our monthly program scheduled for April 15 in the upstairs meeting room:

Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) and Brooks Memorial Library have organized a fantastic program, the last of their Mud Season Speaker Series. David Allen Sibley will be speaking from 6:30-8PM on "Birding for Science: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Feathered Neighbors." This will be in in the library’s main reading room. Full details can be found on the library’s web page:

https://brookslibraryvt.org/event/mud-season-speaker-series-with-david-allen-sibley-birding-for-science-uncovering-the-mysteries-of-our-feathered-neighbors/

Please note that the Sibley program starts a half an hour earlier than our programs.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

May Program

Tuesday, May 20 - 7 PM
THE RESPLENDENT QUETZAL — TOURISM AND LAND USE IN COSTA RICA by Dr. Alan Poole

This talk will provide an accessible, well-illustrated look at the life history of the Resplendent Quetzal -- a dazzling, legendary bird of the highland forests of Central America. Aztec and Mayan cultures revered this quetzal, and today’s birder-watchers, thousands of whom visit quetzal forests each year, are only slight less in awe.

Dr. Alan Poole, the author of a recently published book on Resplendent Quetzals (Cornell Univ. Press, 2023), will lead us through the nesting ecology of this bird, its role in Mayan and Aztec religions, and how it fits into the increasingly threatened cloud forests that sustain it. We’ll also take a look at what lies ahead for this (and other) quetzals — how conservation efforts are giving them a boost, and what threats Mesoamerican cloud forests are facing.

Above all this talk will examine land use in Central America, especially Costa Rica, through a quetzal lens — no species does more to bring current land use trends in this region into focus. Understanding these trends is key to maintaining the viability of highland tropical forests in the Americas, and the quetzals that depend on them.

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ALAN POOLE, an Associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, was editor of the Birds of North America life history series (18 volumes, 18,000 pages) for 22 years. He lives along the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, and spends winters in the highlands of Costa Rica, where quetzals are a highlight.

Have a Program Idea?

We'll begin to plan our fall programs for August-November very soon. If you have an idea for a program, please reach out let us know. Perhaps you took a trip somewhere fun and did some birding, or maybe you know someone engaged in bird research, education or advocacy. Please let us know your ideas! Email Cory Ross at Email Cory Ross

Recordings of Past Meetings

Previous Audubon meetings are available to view online for free.

To find the June 2022 meeting and Cedar Stanistreet's presentation on birding Costa Rica, please visit: June Program

To find the April 2022 meeting and John Anderson's presentation on the history of the Putney Mountain Hawkwatch, please visit: April Program

To find the March 2022 meeting and Chad Witko and Steven Lamdone's presentation on using eBird, please visit: March 2022 Program

To find the January 2022 meeting and Jim Armbruster's presentation on VINS and Hawk Research, please visit: youtu.be/kkNNSF6-2IA

To find the November 2021 meeting and Kaitlin McDonald's presentation on tick ecology, please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Nw1jhBYnQ

To find the October 2021 meeting and Amy Alfieri's presentation about the Dead Creek WMA, please visit:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfsNOF3U9gw

To find the September 2021 meeting and Eric Hansen's presentation on Loon Conservation, please visit:

youtu.be/PuJ7DKCTbhI

To find the June 2021 meeting and Charlie Browne's presentation on the Northeast Kingdom, please visit:

https://youtu.be/X1yhxPq73rU

To find the May 2021 meeting and Chris Rimmer's presentation about Bicknell's Thrush, please visit:

https://youtu.be/EGJxopnXIWM

To find the April 2021 meeting and Cherrie Corey's presentation on spring ephemerals, please visit: youtu.be/4QKVRvKkM-I

To find the March 2021 meeting and Steven Lamonde's presentation on Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers, please visit: March 2021 Program

To find the February 2021 meeting and Patti Smith's Presentation on Wildlife Rehabilitation, please visit: https://youtu.be/2-qOjxF0xO4

To find the January 2021 joint meeting with the Bonnyvale Environmental Center and Bridget Butler's presentation on Corvids, please visit: Corvid Presentation

To find the November 2020 meeting and Eric Slayton's presentation, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2yLbmXm54

To find the October 2020 meeting and Sam Apgar's presentation, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIxbGoJqXpQ

To find the September 2020 meeting and Audrey Boraski's presentation, please visit: youtu.be/ynrDU7Axndc

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April Program Rescheduled

May Program

Have a Program Idea?

Recordings of Past Meetings

A Brown Creeper by Cory Ross

A Hooded Merganser by Cory Ross

A Northern Cardinal by Coleen Lawlor