3RBC
Membership Meeting
Rare Birds and Vagrants
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Part of the fun of birding is finding rare species and discovering birds that show up far from their usual range. Anthony Bledsoe, a faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences will discuss "Rarity and Vagrancy of Birds" at our meeting on Wednesday, March 1, at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside. Doors will open at 6:30 PM for socializing, and the meeting will begin at 7:30 PM.
Our speaker received his Ph.D. in 1984 from Yale University and joined the department at Pitt in 1987. His interests lie in gaining insight into the ecology and biogeography of birds and the basic mechanisms of evolutionary change.
Bledsoe's anatomical comparisons in two important groups of Neotropical passerine birds, the ovenbirds and the tapaculos, are shedding light on the diversity of these birds locomotor adaptations. Another aspect of his research focuses on woodcreepers, whose hindlimb tendons are converted to bone in patterns of conversion that highly variable within species. The studies serve as an avenue to explore the mechanistic basis of evolutionary change.
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.
Note: Kerry Morsek of Venture Outdoors wall talk for 10 minutes about the Green Map project at our March 1 meeting. The Green Map is a web-based device that will do what the old Nature observer News Calendar did, and much more, by listing all outdoor activities in a visual approach, sortable by type of event (birding will be a category) date, place, and group. (See article on Comprehensive Outdoor Calendar).
A look ahead: Mary Beth Steisslinger of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has been invited to the April 19, 2006 Membership Meeting (Slide SlaM) to talk to the club for 8-12 minutes.
3RBC has been providing bird observation data to PPC in conjunction with PPC's efforts to demonstrate to its funding agencies how environmental restoration efforts affect wildlife in the city's regional parks: Frick; Schenley, Riverview and Highland. Mary Beth will explain why she needs the data, where the specific restored areas are, and how birders can help.
