Texas Butterfly Festival

Wednesday, Mar 7, 2007

Chapter members Lorena and Mark Krenitsky attended last year’s Mission, Texas, Butterfly Festival, and will share the trip with us. Join us for an armchair journey to warmer climes….they promise there will be birds, too!

Upper Valley Land Trust
Wednesday, Feb 7, 2007

The Upper Valley Land Trust is a regional land conservancy working to protect farmland, forests, wetlands and waterways, wildlife habitat, trails and scenic areas in the Vermont and New Hampshire towns of the Upper Valley. Since 1985, UVLT has protected over 300 parcels of land encompassing more than 30,000 acres.

Kate Villars, Community Relations Director at the UVLT, will present a slide show highlighting a selection of UVLT-conserved lands that illustrate the variety of natural resources UVLT seeks
to protect, the benefits of land protection, and the partnerships with individual landowners, neighborhood groups, local governments, organizations, and funding agencies that make it
happen. Join us to learn about these properties, and discover some new birding sites.

The film “Being Caribou”
Wednesday, Jan 3, 2007

Porcupine Caribou have been around for the last two major glaciations and once grazed beside Mastadons and Woolly Mammoths.  From April to September, 2003, filmmaker Leanne
Allison and wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer migrated on foot with the 120,000-member Porcupine Caribou Herd from Old Crow, Yukon, Canada, to the caribou calving grounds in Alaska, and back.
The film of the couple’s epic 1000-mile journey with the caribou and what they saw, called ‘Being Caribou’ is an NFB production made from the footage Leanne shot on the 5-month experience.  
Join us for this evening at the movies – and yes, there will be popcorn!

“Winter Botany: Trees in Winter”,
a presentation by Bill Shepard
Wednesday, Dec 6, 2006

Bill Shepard has been a tree enthusiast since his student days at UNH. He keeps an arboretum at his home in Thetford, and recently added his first Spectacled Alder. He has about 50 tree
and shrub species on his property, mostly native except for the invasive (self introduced) species.

Join us on a Winter Botany adventure and make your winter walks and snowshoe hikes more interesting by learning about some of our woody plant species.  As Bill reminds us, we have
leaf-less vegetation for about 7 months of the year.

“Birds of a Feather, Feathers of a Bird”,
a presentation by Peter Stettenheim

Wednesday, Nov 1, 2006

Feathers are the glory and defining feature of modern birds, but they are often taken for granted. They serve many functions within the whole class of birds, such as keeping birds warm and
dry, helping them fly and swim, making sounds, aiding hearing, and giving visual signals. Ornithologist Peter Stettenheim will explain how feathers work and what they do for birds.  And,
since this is the day after Halloween, feel free to put together your own feathers and attend in costume. (You don’t have to be a bird, and you might win a prize!)

Wildlife Photography with Dave Kynor

Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006

Would you like to learn how to create compelling wildlife photographs? This talk and slide show will provide an overview of how to use light, your subject, and composition to create interesting images of wildlife. Technical elements of exposure and current photographic gear will also be discussed. This presentation is intended to help everyone improve his or her photography regardless of current level of experience.

Ralph Hein's Bluebirds

Wednesday, Sep 6, 2006

Bluebirds need our help, and Ralph Hein knows how to help them. The supply of natural nesting cavities for bluebirds and other native cavity nesters has been greatly reduced by land clearing. The introduction into North America of the House Sparrow and the European Starling, aggressive cavity nesters, has created competition for nesting sites. For a number of years Ralph Hein has been trying to even the odds for the bluebirds by building his own bluebird houses and promoting their use to schools and nature organization.