3RBC
Membership Meeting
Birds' Fishing Secrets
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Can you imagine 25 milliseconds (0.025 seconds)? This is how long it takes a Wood Stork's beak to snap shut after it contacts a fish. Snowy Egrets wiggle their golden toes to lure prey into their strike zone. Swimming flocks of White Pelicans herd schools of fish into the shallows. Northern Gannets plunge-dive from 120 feet above the ocean and arrowhead into the water at 60 miles an hour. In clear water Common Loons can dive to 60 yards below the surface.
At our meeting on Wednesday, September 6, Peregrine "Bird Watch" columnist Chuck Tague will use digital photography to survey the specialized birds that survive on the bountiful fish of eastern North America's lakes, rivers, estuaries, and ocean.
The program will be at our usual meeting place, Phipps Garden Center at 1059 Shady Avenue in Shadyside. Doors will open at 6:30 PM for socializing, and the meeting will begin at 7:30,
Chuck will feature pictures of spear-fishing egrets, angling herons, surface-slicing skimmers and terns that plunge for anchovies and sushi-eating Ospreys.
He will also examine the spine-snapping talons, harpoon beaks, distensible mandibles, fish-lure feet, and other remarkable adaptations used by fish-eating birds to capture their sub-aquatic prey.
*** LOOKING AHEAD: Our meeting on Wednesday, November 1, will feature a fascinating program on birds of Alaska by Adrienne Leppold, bander and research assistant at Powdermill Nature Reserve.
