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INSTITUTE FOR FIELD ORNITHOLOGY

EAST COAST SHOREBIRDS

16-23 August 2008
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Instructor: Wayne Petersen

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Sanderlings. Photo by Erik Enbody.

Explore various shorebird habitats through daily field trips, some close to Massachusetts Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center, and others farther afield. You will have the opportunity to witness at close range large concentrations of most all the regularly occurring shorebird species of northeastern North America. Leisurely views and adequate time for study will allow for detailed examination of the behavioral and plumage characteristics of a wide variety of shorebird species. Classroom time will be spent viewing slides, studying specimens and printed reference material, and discussing birds seen on the daily field trips. Lectures, supplemented by contact with local shorebird researchers, will discuss shorebird ecology during breeding, migration, and wintering seasons. Emphases of this workshop are the biology, identification, aging and census techniques used for monitoring shorebirds in the Northeast. In addition, part of one day will allow us to participate in a seabird and whale watching trip out of Newburyport.

INSTRUCTOR

Wayne Petersen is the director of Massachusetts Audubon's Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program. He has led international birding tours, lectured, and conducted birding workshops across North America for over 35-years. His travels have taken him from Arctic Canada to South America, Antarctica, Iceland, Africa, Madagascar, and New Zealand. Wayne is a New England Regional Editor for North American Birds magazine, and serves on the advisory committee for the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. His literary accomplishments include writing the National Audubon Society's Pocket Guide to Songbirds and Familiar Backyard Birds (East) , co-authoring Birds of Massachusetts and Birds of New England, and co-editing the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas. He also contributed to The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding, and The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior. In 2005 Wayne received the American Birding Association's Ludlow Griscom Award for outstanding contributions to regional ornithology.

WORKSHOP LOCATION

Newburyport, Massachusetts, will be the home for our workshop with indoor lecture sessions taking place at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center located on the banks of the Merrimack River estuary, and minutes from the famous Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. The 4,662-acre Parker River Refuge is a barrier island that supports a rich mix of open ocean, sandy beach, sand dune and coastal thicket, extensive salt marsh, and impounded freshwater wetland habitat. The Merrimack River estuary itself provides feeding area for thousands of shorebirds throughout the summer. In addition to the quality birding opportunities in the Newburyport area, at least one all-day trip will be taken to South Beach, a premiere shorebird location near Chatham on beautiful Cape Cod.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

This workshop will require moderate walking on solid ground on most field trips, with somewhat strenuous walking over soft sand and mudflats on a day spent on Cape Cod. Participants should expect to get wet up to the knees on the day we take a short boat ride to South Beach on Cape Cod. Field time will be leisurely. Weather will vary from sunny and warm to cool with light sea breezes.

WORKSHOP PRICES

$1889 per person
$443 single room supplement

ABA Institute for Field Ornithology, ABA
4945 N 30th St, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80919
719/578-9703 x235 . fax 719/578-1480 . ifo@aba.org