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