Richmond Audubon Society Member Meeting, April 21, Thursday, 7PM
Birding Western Alaska
RAS welcomes Len Smock, Director of the VCU Rice Rivers Center and
long-time birder, as he takes us through two weeks of birding in the far
west of Alaska. Some of us have enjoyed visiting and birding Alaska from
Seward to Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks, but birding around Nome and
roadless St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Sea just 34 miles from
Siberia, is a different kind of adventure.
The presentation will lead you through this beautiful, wind swept
environment and introduce you to the Upik Native-Americans and their
subsistence way of life - have you every walked through, and birded in,
a centuries-old boneyard full of whale, seal and walrus bones? And of
course there are the birds. Clouds of over 600,000 auklets, murres,
puffins, guillemots, eiders and others that fly by twice a day as they
head out to sea to forage and then return to the island's seaside
cliffs. There also are the Asian species such as bluethroats, wagtails
and greenshanks, as well as the species of the tundra like snow
buntings, longspurs, bristle-thighed curlews and gyrfalcons. Afterwards,
you will be ready to pack your bags and head out to this remote and
beautiful area of North America.
Looking forward to May, Joyce Caldwell, RAS Education Chair, will
present, âNest in Peace.â More details will appear in the May/June
Thrasher.
Location: St Luke Lutheran Church
<https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=7757+Chippenham+Pkwy%2C+Richmond%2C+VA%2C+US>
7757 Chippenham Pkwy, Richmond, VA (map
<https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=7757+Chippenham+Pkwy%2C+Richmond%2C+VA%2C+US>)