On Tuesday evening, February 12th, 2019 the Linnaean Society of New York 2018/2019 Speaker Program will feature two new presentations. While the evening's topics are not strictly about birds, the presentations may be of interest to many birders and naturalists in the birding community.
6:00 pm - Diving in the Coral Triangle - Mike Bryant Mike Bryant and his wife Ray are frequent Central Park birders. Their "other life" is scuba diving (since 1986). Here are some of the critters and creatures found in the Coral Triangle, bounded by the Philippines in the north down to Indonesia and Papua in the south. It's the area with the greatest marine diversity in the world. They consider it the most interesting (and the most difficult to get to) diving available in tropical warm waters. Mike will be featuring some of the strange animals that qualify as "the world of the weird" from trips dating back to 2003. A snorkeling experience in Bermuda was the start of the marine interest and has led to what now numbers 2,300 hours underwater. Probable subjects will include frogfish, the many forms of scorpionfish named for their poisonous spines, and the ever-entertaining cephalopods, the cuttlefish, squid, and octopus. 7:30 pm - American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, & Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic - Victoria Johnson Dr. David Hosack was known as the doctor who was present at the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in New Jersey in 1804. Yet it was his passionate advocacy for the nation's first botanical garden that was Hosack's greatest legacy. He realized that the United States would remain a backwater without a facility to grow and test medicinal plants. As a result, his garden on Fifth Avenue and his conservatory (which lies under Radio City Music Hall) were full of thousands of species both native and exotic. Victoria Johnson will transport us to the time when Manhattan was covered with farms and forests and reveal the incredible lengths to which the larger-than-life Hosack went to realize his dream. Professor Johnson is an associate professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City, where she lectures on the history of philanthropy and New York City. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Both presentations are free and will be held in the Linder Theater on the first floor of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Enter at West 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. All welcome! Complete details of these exciting presentations and the rest of the 2018/2019 program can be found here: https://linnaeannewyork.org/programs-trips/lsny-programs.html -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
