Program: Birds Do the Darndest Things

Meeting to be held at Kennebunkport Conservation Trust

Birds Do the Darndest Things

One of the great pleasures of birding is observing the intimate snippets of birds’ lives.  Usually the birds we see are either perched, flying, or feeding.  But every so often, we glimpse less obvious behaviors, which hold us spellbound—a meadowlark fleeing a falcon, an oriole constructing a complex nest, or a jay surreptitiously stashing away seeds.

Observing bird behavior carefully often leads us to ponder some puzzling questions: Why do Yellow Warblers naively devote themselves to feeding cowbird fledglings twice their size?  How do Black-capped Chickadees remember where they have stored thousands of seed-caches?  Do birds play for the fun of it or do they play to develop certain skills necessary for survival?

Join naturalist and birding tour guide Lena Senko as she explores a slew of intriguing bird behaviors and the insights of biologists who devote their lives to studying them.

A great description of Lena can be found here:  http://www.fieldguides.com/guides/lena-senko

 

About Harlequin

Harlequin is a pseudonym for content not attributed to a specific author. It echoes the name of the YCAS newsletter, The Harlequin. Watch for Harlequin Ducks along the rocky portions of the York County coast in winter. ¶ The avatar is by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, who sketched and painted the species during the Harriman Alaska Expedition. ¶ "When we got before the glacier, I saw my first pair of harlequins... the glass showed them plainly to be a ♂ + ♀ histrionicus." — L.A. Fuertes, June 7, 1899
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