3RBC
Membership Meeting
Birds in Poetry Will Warm Us
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
What do the Ovenbird, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and Bobolink have in common? They've been the subjects of poems by two of America's greatest writers, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. With avid birder and English teacher David Liebmann as our speaker on Wednesday, January 4, at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside, you'll be surprised and delighted by the ornithological and poetic observations of writers who know their birds pretty well.
The program will include photos illustrating the subjects of each poem, and selections from his forthcoming book, Between Heaven and Earth: A Literary Field Guide to the Poetry of Birds. Doors will open at 6:30 PM for socializing, and the meeting will begin at 7:30PM. Stories from the Christmas Bird Count are sure to be a topic of conversation!
David is a board member of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and chairs its Education Committee. He's a volunteer bander at Powdermill, too. David started birding on the coast of Maine as a teacher at Chewonki (where Roger Tory Peterson was previously a nature counselor and began the first Field Guide to the Birds). He has birded in Georgia, where he was born and raised; in New England, where he went to college and taught; in New Mexico, where he was a ranger for five summers at Philmont Scout Ranch; and at a few places in between. He holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Environmental Studies and an M.A. in American and British Literature from Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English.
The Garden Center is at 1059 Shady Avenue behind the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts at Fifth and Shady Avenues. Parking is 25 cents an hour in a metered lot, and more parking is available on Shady Avenue. In addition, Beechwood Boulevard, a block east of Shady, has free parking and is a short walk through Mellon Park to the Garden Center. Detailed directions are on the Phipps website: http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/information/directions.html.
