For students, faculty, personnel from federal and state agencies, museums,
environmental organizations and consulting firms
Field Ornithology: Shorebirds and Seabirds of Downeast Maine
Sept 4 - 10
Instructor: Gene Wilhelm
Location: Eagle Hill Institute, Steuben, Me
This advanced field ornithology seminar is intended primarily for professional
biologists, teachers, naturalists, and birders who want to learn more about
identification, taxonomy, migration, and ecology of these two groups of birds.
Depending upon avian families under scrutiny, the seminar coincides with the
peak of autumn migration in Downeast Maine. Field and laboratory work will use
the six-key AVES method of identification: eye (size-shape-color-pattern), ear,
habitat/range, behavior, field marks, and ecology. Daily field trips will be
supplemented by lectures, visual presentations, and group reports-discussions
on diagnostic field identification, taxonomy, behavior, migration, ecology, and
the process of extinction for some shorebirds and seabirds.
Objectives:
1) Each participant will focus on avian diagnostic field-mark identification
for separating
the two groups in general, shorebirds and seabirds, using the AVES six-key
method.
2) In addition, each of you will develop and utilize a personalized diagnostic
field identification key for a confusing pair of shorebirds or seabirds using
field notes, sketch drawings, photographs, tape recordings, and library
research. You will choose your pair of birds Sunday night from a prepared list
of confusing shorebirds or seabirds.
3) Friday evening, you will give an oral presentation on your confusing pair of
birds
using of the scientific evidence you collected during the week regarding their
field identification, behavior, migration, and ecology. Graphics are strongly
recommended.
4) Hopefully, at the end of this seminar, you will have a keener awareness,
sensitivity, and understanding of Earth’s avian kinfolk, and the significant
role humans must play in the ecological scheme of things at home by challenging
the process of avian extinction.
Gene Wilhelm ([email protected]) is Slippery Rock University Professor
Emeritus of Ecology and Biogeography. He developed the AVES method of avian
identification over four decades of field ornithological research on seven
continents. He was former Vice President of Environmental Education, National
Audubon Society, New York, responsible for four summer ecology camps and five
environmental education centers across the United States. Dr. Wilhelm taught
field ornithology courses, workshops, and seminars worldwide, including Eagle
Hill Institute for five consecutive summers in the 1990s. In 1998, he was
appointed volunteer International Hawk Watch Station Master in Santa Ana
National Wildlife Refuge by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Alamo, Texas,
researching migrating raptors until 2010. Presently, he’s researching
Development & Avian Extirpation in western Pennsylvania.
For general information, go to
http://eaglehill.us/programs/nhs/natural-history-seminars.shtml
For course calendar and course descriptions, go to
http://www.eaglehill.us/programs/nhs/nhs-calendar.shtml
For application information and cost breakdown, go to
http://www.eaglehill.us/programs/general/application-info.shtml
For more information, contact [email protected], 207-546-2821 x 1
