Willow Beach Field Naturalists

Next Meeting

Friday, May 26, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Bridget Stutchbury
Topic: New Discoveries in Song Bird Migration
Description: Each fall, billions of songbirds leave Canada on an epic journey to their far-away wintering grounds in Central and South America where many live in tropical forests shared by toucans, howler monkeys, and jaguars. Dozens of species have experienced serious, long-term population declines that are driven in part by the threats that these birds face on migration and while in the tropics. Bridget Stutchbury talks about her research on purple martins, wood thrushes, and white-crowned sparrows that tracks the migration of individuals over part, or all, of their migration journey to better understand the threats they face along the way, and how we can help.

Bridget Stutchbury with Hooded Warbler (by R Mumme)

Professor Bridget J. Stutchbury, M.Sc., Ph.D., researcher and author.
Bridget Stutchbury is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Biology at York University, Toronto. She did her M.Sc. at Queen’s University, her Ph.D. at Yale and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Since the 1980s, she has studied migratory songbirds to understand their behavior, ecology and conservation but has also witnessed first-hand the shocking declines of many birds including wood thrushes, barn swallows and bobolinks. She studies the
incredible migration journeys of songbirds and the many threats they face along the way. She is author of Silence of the Songbirds (2007) and The Bird Detective (2010) and was featured in the award-winning 2015 documentary The Messenger. She has also been a long-serving board member for Wildlife Preservation Canada whose mission is to prevent animal extinctions (including the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike).

Celebrating our 70th anniversary
Refreshments and a celebration of our anniversary will take place after the speaker.
Doors open at 6:45 p.m., meeting starts at 7:00 p.m., Cobourg Public Library, 200 Ontario St., Cobourg. This meeting can be attended in person at the Cobourg Public Library or by Zoom.

Due to venue capacity limits, registration is required. Click here to register.

Next Outing

Saturday, May 13, 2023
Pond Study. Leader: Mark Rupke
Location is dependant on wind conditions so watch your email for further notice. Invite your children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren to this event looking at pond insects and frogs. Location to be announced.