Zoom Program Friday Dec. 11 Live at 7:30pm
Posted on Monday, November 30th, 2020Of Ravens, Wolves and People
LCAS and the Eugene Natural History Society are cosponsoring a Zoom program by John Marzluff "Of Ravens, Wolves and People."
John Marzluff is a professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs). His talk will report on the travels of ravens as they forage among wolves, pumas, and people.
He has studied how humans affect birds through habitat fragmentation and increased urbanization, as well as the challenges of conserving birds on islands. Currently he is focusing on the habits of common ravens in Yellowstone National Park. Some ravens in the park commute long distances to exploit human and canine hunters, agricultural subsidies, sewage ponds, and dumps. Travels of 60 miles per day are not unusual. Others beg at picnic grounds and pullouts. One rings a bell for roast beef at the home of a tavern waitress.
He has written or co-written six books about birds, most focusing on his favorites, the crows and ravens. While his work has focused primarily on corvids (ravens, crows, and jays), he has also worked with falcons and hawks throughout the world. Conversely, he is interested in all the ways that birds affect people. How, for instance, birds influence art or language.
While birding at Finley National Wildlife Refuge in his teens, Rich Hoyer heard the most amazing thing – a Purple Finch incorporating sounds of a California Scrub-Jay in its jumbled song. He thought he had discovered something new, since such behavior wasn’t mentioned in any field guide. Since then he’s been fascinated and intrigued by mimicry in birds, collecting personal observations and recordings of the phenomenon. In this audiovisual presentation, Rich Hoyer will present examples of mimicry in songbirds from throughout the Americas and share his enthusiasm for this curious and often entertaining behavior.
Born and raised in Oregon, Rich Hoyer earned bachelor’s degrees in German and Zoology at Oregon State University. Following a few years as an itinerant biologist and summer guide on Saint Paul Island, Alaska, he moved to Tucson, Arizona and has been working as a professional birding tour leader for WINGS for the past 23 years. 
Ram Papish will guide us on a tour of what he terms “the greatest wildlife spectacle in the world.” He will show us herds of wildebeest, zebra, and antelope stretching endlessly in every direction, and give us an opportunity to witness the eternal struggle between predator and prey on the expansive plains of Tanzania.
Although we had to cancel William Sullivan's April presentation on “New Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades” for the Lane County Audubon Society, here’s a happy twist: the Deschutes Public Library has posted the same program online, and here’s the link:
Colombia is a dream destination for birders. Its avifaunal richness is partly due to the branching of the imposing Andes into three mountain ranges: the Eastern, Central and Western Andes. Two rivers, the Magdalena and Cauca, create the great valleys between these mountains. The altitude ranges from a few hundred feet to over 18,000.