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While most people go to the beach for fun and relaxation, “life on the beach is never calm for a bird,” maintains biologist and bird photographer Pete Myers.
Myers will give a talk ominously titled “Bird Bedlam on the Beach!” next Monday evening, Feb. 13, at 6:30 in the parish hall of Grace Presbyterian Church. The program is sponsored by the Rockbridge Bird Club and open to all.
Myers will focus on the lives of shorebirds that winter on the beaches of California – lives fraught with danger and turmoil as revealed in his riveting photographs.
“I will tell stories about the challenges that shorebirds surmount as they live on California beaches after spending the summer breeding in the Arctic and migrating south in late summer.”
“The same stories can be witnessed all along Virginia’s beaches” he adds.
The presentation will feature sandpipers, plovers, willets, godwits and more. Myers will describe the bedlam that unfolds when these shorebirds compete to capture mole crabs, the food on which they depend for survival.
The speaker earned a doctorate in biological sciences at U.C. Berkeley, studying and photographing birds in Argentina, coastal California and the Alaskan North Slope. Over time, his research interests shifted from birds to environmental health. He moved to the Charlottesville area to become director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and in 1996 co-authored “Our Stolen Future,” a book that explores how contamination threatens fetal development. In 2002, he founded Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit that advances public understanding of important issues in environmental health.
Birding At Boxerwood
Rockbridge Bird Club also invites area residents to join them for their next outing at Boxerwood this Saturday, Feb. 11. Walks are scheduled on the second Saturday of each month.
During the January walk, participants spotted some 30 species, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the now-familiar but still splendid Greathorned Owl that has taken up residence in the pines.
Birders will meet in the parking lot at Boxerwood (963 Ross Road) at 8:30 a.m. for a two-hour stroll. Participants should dress for the weather, bring binoculars, and wear sturdy footwear.
In the event of rain, the walk will be cancelled. For more information about Birding at Boxerwood, contact Bonnie Bernstein at bonnie. [email protected] or (540) 460-9147.
