[SEMCO] [Mass Audubon] Wellfleet Bay Summer Bayside Talks

[Amy Fleischer]

Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is thrilled to announce
two Bayside Talks this summer

 

Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Kestrels and Cranberries, featuring live birds

Bird bander and conservationist Joey Mason

 

Anyone who has ever seen an American Kestrel hover above a meadow just
before diving on its prey can appreciate the beauty of this colorful
bird of prey. Unfortunately, our smallest falcon is in big trouble.
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about kestrels, and their
reliance on cranberry bogs as a nesting habitat in this wonderful
photographic presentation by Joanne "Joey" Mason, who will share her
extensive research and conservation experiences with American kestrels.

A live kestrel and merlin will be featured for close and photographic
looks.

Mason's talk with include insight and speculation into the kestrels'
decline, which was recently documented by Mass Audubon's landmark State
of the Birds report, as well as intriguing stories about what the
kestrels are eating and what else is nesting in their boxes. (Kestrels
nest in a variety of open habitats, especially rare grassland habitats.)


Joey Mason initiated the nest box project for American kestrels in
southeastern Massachusetts 23 years ago. She has monitored American
Kestrel nest boxes and banded young and adult Kestrels with U.S. Fish
and Wildlife bands ever since. In 2000, she spearheaded the Raptor
Retrofit Project to prevent osprey electrocutions on privately owned
utility poles, and has been responsible for placement of numerous osprey
nesting platforms. Joey has recently been working on a better management
practices for landfills, to prevent raptors from getting injured and
killed from methane burners.

Learn more:
http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Wellfleet/news.
php?id=2000&event=no

Register online:
https://www.massaudubon.org/catalog/listing.php?program_code=1125-WF12SU
1

 

Wednesday, August 8, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Finding Your Inner Fish

New York Times Best-selling Author and Leading Paleontologist Neil
Shubin

 

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common
with the wing of a fly or the fin of a fish? Neil Shubin, a leading
paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered the fossil of
Tiktaalik--the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in
April 2006--tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the
human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures
walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our
hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a
long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and
function like those of worms and bacteria. In this lecture, we will
relive Shubin's expeditions to the Arctic in search of ancient fossils
that reveal how fish took their first steps on land. Then, he will
reveal how 3.5 billion years of the history of life is embedded in every
part of our bodies. 

Shubin was educated at Columbia University (1982, A.B.), Harvard
University (1987, Ph.D), and The University of California at Berkeley
(1987-1989, Postdoctoral Fellowship). After serving on the faculty of
The University of Pennsylvania (1990-2000), he joined the faculty of The
University of Chicago as Chair of the Department of Organismal Biology
and Anatomy. In 2006, he was appointed Robert R. Bensley Distinguished
Service Professor, Associate Dean of the Biological Sciences Division of
The University of Chicago, his current appointments. He is author, with
colleagues, of numerous publications on the origin of vertebrates in the
fossil record (most notably the discovery of the earliest salamanders,
frogs, mammals, and the transitional lobe finned fish, Tiktaalik roseae)
as well as developmental analyses of the evolution of skeletal organs. 

Shubin is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Your Inner
Fish (Vintage, 2009) and is the recipient of The National Academies
Scientific Communication Award, (Best Book), The Phi Beta Kappa Science
Book Award, and the Distinguished Service Award of the National
Association of Biology Teachers. He is a Fellow of both the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences and a member of The National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America.

Learn more:
http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Wellfleet/news.
php?id=1998&event=no

Register online:
https://www.massaudubon.org/catalog/listing.php?program_code=1126-WF12SU
1

 

Tickets may be purchased by calling 508.349.2615 or online at
www.massaudubon.org/wellfleetbay

Our July/ August program brochure can be found here:
http://www.massaudubon.org/PDF/newsletters/Wellfleet_Bay_218.pdf

 

We hope that you will share this information with your colleagues and
friends, and to see you at the sanctuary soon. Please let us know if you
have any questions.

 

Best wishes,

Amy

 

Amy Fleischer, Education Director/ Public Programs Coordinator 

Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

PO Box 236, South Wellfleet, MA 02663

afleischer at massaudubon.org

508-349-2615, ext 114 

Office Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Protecting the Nature of Massachusetts 
www.massaudubon.org/wellfleetbay 

 

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