Upcoming Programs

Switch to Calendar View

• Program - Wandering with a Good Camera

  • When
    2 Jun 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and Zoom

  Alan Mapes has been a birder from a young age, but in retirement he finally bought a good camera and long lens for bird photography. Lacking the discipline of a really talented bird photographer, he has been birding and just grabbing photos as time and opportunity present. Alan will share some of his images and ideas for enjoying bird photography without the drive or worry about being professional at the craft. Having dabbled with older style camera gear decades ago, he will contrast that experience with the remarkable equipment now available.

  Alan joined NYSDEC after graduating from Cornell with a Wildlife Science degree, spending much of his career at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in Delmar. After directing the center from 1978-1995, he moved to the agency central office, overseeing its education centers and summer youth camps. After retiring, Alan was active for 10 years with a sea kayaking center, guiding and instructing. He now lives near Saratoga Springs. 

  

  
  

  Show details
• Reflections from a bird bath: what game cameras can teach us about bird ecology

  • When
    8 Sep 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and Zoom

  Speaker: Jim Ferrari

  Water is profoundly important for birds, not only for drinking, but also for feather maintenance. But surprisingly little is known about how often birds bathe or drink, and whether this varies with the seasons or the time of day. What is the social behavior of birds at water sources – do they avoid each other, or do they get along? And does the attraction of birds to water also mean that bird baths are focal points for deposition of seeds from fruits that birds have recently eaten? This presentation will describe the findings from a multi-year project in Georgia in which a game camera was used to monitor bird behavior and seed deposition to a water bath. It turns out that some amazing ecological interactions are happening every day at your backyard bird bath!

  Jim Ferrari is a Professor and Chair of Biology at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, where he has taught Biology for more than 25 years. His Ph.D. is in Ecology from the University of Minnesota, and his undergraduate Biology degree is from Middlebury College, Vermont.

  At Wesleyan, Jim teaches Ecology, Evolution, Conservation Biology, Field Biology, and related courses. He is an accomplished birder and is past-president of both the Ocmulgee Audubon Society (Macon, Georgia) and the Georgia Ornithological Society (GOS); in addition, he is the editor of The Oriole, the scientific journal of GOS. 

  Jim has studied vultures, fruit-eating birds, seed dispersal by birds, nocturnal flight calls, and the song structure of Bachman’s Sparrows. His book on The Ecology of Fruit-Eating Birds in Georgia, with co-author Jerry Payne, was published by the Georgia Ornithological Society in 2009. Jim has a number of other scientific publications, including three species accounts in the Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia, and his nature essays have appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest. 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Bird Parasitism

  • When
    6 Oct 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and Zoom

  Speaker: Dr. Chris Harbison of Siena College
  

  Show details
• TBD

  • When
    3 Nov 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and Zoom

  TBD

  Show details
• Birding Argentina

  • When
    1 Dec 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and Zoom

  Holiday party and program - Birding Argentina

  Speaker: Gregg Recer

  Argentina is a surprisingly big country, the second-largest by area in South America, stretching nearly 4000 km from the northern border with Bolivia to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. Within that span a huge variety of habitats occur including tropical forest and wetlands, the arid Altiplano, Andean foothills and highlands, Pampas grasslands, flat and windy Patagonia, about 1500 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, and glacier-topped peaks surrounding Southern Beech forest at the tip of continent. With all that variety comes a very big variety of birds -- toucans, hummingbirds, rheas, penguins, flamingoes, tubenoses, parrots, and a tremendous range of furnariids, just to mention a few. Gregg Recer and Cathy Graichen visited the country briefly in 2018, and on two birding tours in 2024 that covered the entire length of the country. This talk will share their experiences throughout the incredibly birdy and scenic country.

  Gregg Recer is a former HMBC president. He and his wife, Cathy Graichen, have been HMBC members since 1989 and have been focused on world birding for over 20 years.  

  
  

  

  Beagle Channel lighthouse

  
  

  

  James' Flamingo

  
  

  

  Jujuy Province scenery

  
  

  

  Dolphin Gull

  
  

  Show details