The next North Shore Audubon Society (NSAS) general meeting will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at 7pm.
Our presentation will be "Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird” by Katie Fallon. Free admission. All are invited - you do not need to be a NSAS member to attend. Turkey vultures, the most widely distributed and abundant scavenging birds of prey on the planet, are found from central Canada to the southern tip of Argentina, and nearly everywhere in between. But despite being ubiquitous and recognizable, the turkey vulture has never had a book of literary nonfiction devoted to it—until Vulture. Floating on six-foot wings, turkey vultures use their keen senses of smell and sight to locate carrion. Unlike the black vulture, turkey vultures do not kill weak or dying animals; instead, they cleanse, purify, and renew the environment by clearing it of decaying carcasses, thus slowing the spread of such dangerous pathogens as anthrax, rabies, and botulism. The beauty, grace, and important role of these birds in the ecosystem notwithstanding, turkey vultures are maligned and underappreciated; they have been accused of spreading disease and killing livestock, neither of which has ever been substantiated. Although turkey vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the birds still face persecution. They’ve been killed because of their looks, their odor, and their presence in proximity to humans. Even the federal government occasionally sanctions “roost dispersals,” which involve the harassment and sometimes the murder of communally roosting vultures. Vulture follows a year in the life of a typical North American turkey vulture. By incorporating information from scientific papers and articles, as well as interviews with world-renowned raptor and vulture experts, author Katie Fallon examines all aspects of the bird’s natural history: breeding, incubating eggs, raising chicks, migrating, and roosting. After reading this book you will never look at a vulture in the same way again. Katie Fallon is the cofounder of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, a nonprofit research, education, and rehabilitation center for injured birds. A member of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators, she has glove-trained a wide variety of raptor species, including turkey vultures, hawks, owls, and falcons. She is the author of Cerulean Blues: A personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. Katie lives in West Virginia. Pre-registration is required for this Zoom meeting. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtdu6rqzwuEtWl-gZfESHRmGZ5ZiIGyqNu <https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtdu6rqzwuEtWl-gZfESHRmGZ5ZiIGyqNu> After registering, you will receive a link to join the meeting. For more information on NSAS programs and weekly walks, see www.northshoreaudubon.org/calendar <http://www.northshoreaudubon.org/calendar> Hope to see you on Zoom! Nancy Tognan Publicity volunteer, North Shore Audubon Society, PO Box 763, Port Washington, NY 11050 www.northshoreaudubon.org <http://www.northshoreaudubon.org/> nancy.tog...@gmail.com <mailto:nancy.tog...@gmail.com> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --