Schedule of Activities

If it's alive and it lives wild, it's wildlife.

Library Talks

Introduction — 2009 Series: Magnificent Connections

This year-long series, presented one each month, will work from the central theme "Nothing lives alone!" The presentations will feature the ways in which the life of one creature ripples through the lives of many others thus establishing "Magnificent Connections!" Each program will focus on wildlife that occurs in Colorado and that can be found by the person motivated to go look for it.

Magnificent Connections 1: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Symbiosis

Magnificent Connections 2: Bark-Beetles and the Tragedy of Despair

Magnificent Connections 3: How a Tree and a Bird Became Best Friends

Magnificent Connections 4: The Value of a Hole

Magnificent Connections 5: The Cost of Villainy

Magnificent Connections 6: One Thing Leads to a Dozen Others

Magnificent Connections 7: The Most Important Thankless Work

Magnificent Connections 8: A Delightful Animal Somewhere Else

Magnificent Connections 9: Not Simply a Flower

Magnificent Connections 10: Bumps, Strands, and Tunnels

Magnificent Connections 11: It Begins with a Cough

A snail in the grass hardly seems to represent anything of great importance because the world does crawl with snails, after all. But this little snail accommodates an even smaller worm; so when a hungry mouth snips off the grass, the snail gets swallowed, and the worm goes to work. Afield to admire a great icon of the Rocky Mountains, you hear a cough, which is where it all begins.

Loveland Library: November 3
Fort Collins Library: November 10

Magnificent Connections 12: The Special Case of Special Cases

Linkages among Colorado’s wildlife resonate with mysteries both solved and unsolved. How, for example, can anything exclusively eat something as poisonous as harvester-ants? And what good is sagebrush? Which came first: the parasitic mollusk or the host minnow? Squirrels and ferrets, oaks and butterflies, grouses and conifers, earthworms and flies: they all complete the story of Colorado’s magnificent connections.

Loveland Library: December 1
Fort Collins Library: December 8

Library Talks
Information and Directions

Loveland Public Library
Noon-Time Nature

First Tuesday of each month (but check for the occasional rescheduling!); noon to 1:00; free to the public; bring a sack lunch if you like.

Access to Loveland Library parking lot from Adams St. south of E. 4^th St.

Fort Collins Public Library
Views and Vistas

Second Tuesday of each month (but check for the occasional rescheduling!); noon to 1:00; free to the public; bring a sack lunch if you like.

Address: 201 Peterson St., between Oak and Olive Streets.

Evening Classes

Bird Class Update:
More Sessions Added!

    More than 70 people have signed up for the autumn bird class, "Bird Identification and Birding." Fortunately, the classroom will not hold 73 people, which allows me to offer alternatives that will keep class size genially smaller.
    I scheduled the same class for the JAX Outdoor store in Loveland and started the class on Tuesday, 27 October, leaving six more sessions in the class. On nights when everyone who registered attends, the room, ergo the class, is full.
    Also, I have reserved the classroom at JAX Outdoor in Fort Collins for a second night each week. Adding to the original Wednesday nights, I have scheduled the following nights for teaching the same class:

Monday, 9 Nov – Birding for Longtime
                              Beginners
Thursday, 12 Nov – Hawks
Thursday, 19 Nov – Gulls
Thursday, 3 Dec – Sparrows and Finches
Thursday, 10 Dec – Waterfowl
Thursday, 17 Dec – Specialty Birding

    I need about 10 to 15 people to switch from Wednesday night class sessions to Thursday night class sessions. If the switch works for you, please call me or email me.

Bird Identification
and Birding

Oct 28 Birding for New Beginners

This session is intended for people new to birds and birding and will cover a lot of basics such as classification, names, types of field guides, using field guides, bird finding, identification protocols, how to be certain of identifications, optics, and related topics. Special emphasis will focus on skills development and warding off information overload.

Nov 4 Birding for Longtime
Beginners

This session is intended for people who have been interested in birds for awhile, have done some birding, have the gist of birds and birding, but have a sense of not going anywhere like they have been stuck in the same place long enough that they may be losing interest. Instruction will present strategies for acquiring a keener sense of accomplishment from time and effort spent birding. Special emphasis will focus on refining birding skills.

The following four sessions will address each group in turn by first accounting the species known to occur in Colorado. Content will cover details relevant to finding and identifying the indicated birds by including such topics as species abundance, species behaviors, how age affects identification, color and pattern variations, how to find the various species including when and where. Special emphasis will focus on using all available information to make correct identifications.

Nov 11    Hawks

Nov 18    Gulls

Dec 2      Sparrows and Finches

Dec 9      Waterfowl

Dec 16    Specialty Birding

This session will present a list of species most easily found late autumn through winter into spring. Information will explain where to go to look for each species, how to find the target bird once you get there, and how to identify it correctly once you find it.

Where: JAX Outdoor, 1200 N. College Ave.

When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Cost: $7 per session or $45 if paid once

Directions: Space and seating are limited to reservations are recommended. Walk-ins are welcome but can be accommodated only on a space-available basis. For reservations call Kevin afternoons or evenings at 223-8392. He does not answer the telephone in the mornings.