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November 25, 2024
Ross McKinney—New Zealand: Preserving the Precious
How to access this meeting via zoom
Ross and Holly McKinney took a birding-heavy trip through New Zealand in February, 2024. The trip included examples of New Zealand's endemic species, many of which have barely survived the arrivals of the Maori and their accompanying rats and other mammals in 1300-1320. The arrival of Europeans in the 19th century only made the situation worse for New Zealand birds, most of which had evolved to protect themselves from other birds and reptiles, not animals with a sense of smell. In the 1970s, the people of New Zealand began to realize they had an opportunity to preserve and protect their unique birdlife. They developed mammal free islands like Tiri Tiri Matangi and Capiti, and they designed elaborate walling systems able to keep out predators in mainland preserves.
Ross McKinney is a retired pediatric infectious diseases physician who practiced at Duke for 37 years. He is an avid photographer, runs a vintage pen web site, and is currently Vice President of the New Hope Bird Alliance.
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January 27 2025
David Anderson and Joe Donahue—Finding Birds in Panama
Joe Donahue, David Anderson and Vern Bothwell spent 8 days in March, 2024 at the Canopy Lodge in Panama. Daily field trips and observations at the Lodge tallied over 200 species. Feeding platforms at the Lodge made for some exciting sightings. And expert guides found a wonderful variety of birds in the surrounding regions.
David Anderson spent almost 40 years in the animal and conservation profession. Beginning as supervisor and interim director of the Duke Lemur Center, then general curator and associate director of the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, executive director of the San Francisco Zoo, director of Florida Audubon, strategic program director of the Bay Institute in San Francisco, and finally retiring to North Carolina, where he is chair of the Field Trips committee for New Hope Bird Alliance, and a drummer in a rock and roll band!
Joe Donahue is an avid birder. After getting a biology degree at Oklahoma State, he spent 20 years in the Army flying helicopters and airplanes "managing not to kill myself or anyone else." He then spent 2 years teaching high school in Tulsa, where he again "did not kill anyone but had serious thoughts on the subject." He returned to the aviation logisitics field for the rest of his working days.
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February 24, 2025
Lynn Moseley. Leks, Sex, and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper
About 90% of bird species are socially monogamous, with a single male and female forming a pair bond and raising young. But about 100 species exhibit an usual type of breeding behavior in which males in a small group defend individual territories in an area known as a lek. These territories are used exclusively for courtship displays and mating, and the males play no role in incubation or raising the young. This program will give examples of lekking species and explore why this behavior has evolved.
Lynn retired several years ago from Guilford College, where she was the Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology, and Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Math. Her Bachelor's degree in Biology is from the College of William and Mary (she took Ornithology from Dr. Byrd). She received her Ph.D in Zoology from UNC-Chapel Hill. At Guilford College Lynn taught courses in Ornithology, Animal Behavior, Vertebrate Zoology, and Outer Banks Ecology. Her research focused on Least Terns on the barrier islands of North Carolina, and later on Bald Eagles that nested in the Piedmont. Dr. Moseley has led many trips with students, alumni, and friends of Guilford College to observe wildlife in the American Southwest, East Africa, the Galapagos Islands, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
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March 24, 2025
Bo Howes and Jin Bai—Habitat Management and Bird Population at Brumley North
Brumley Forest Nature Preserve is a local popular birding hotspot in the Triangle, managed by the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC). TLC has been working on land management activities aimed at improving the quality of habitat at Brumley North, including prescribed burns, removing invasive plants, planting native seeds and plugs, and doing bird-centered outreach events. Since the Fall of 2022, TLC and New Hope Bird Alliance have conducted bird surveys to evaluate the effects of these habitat management activities on the bird population at Brumley N. Bo Howes and Jin Bai will co-present a talk presenting information on the management activities at Brumley N with Jin presenting bird population level and trends at Brumley N using data collected and compiled from the bird survey. In addition, Jin will also talk about the warbler index, which gives some unique insights into the birding hotspots with the highest number of warbler species seen during each migration season in the Triangle.
Bo Howes started as Conservation Project Manager for TLC in October 2008 and currently holds the position of Director of Land Protection and Stewardship West. With deep roots in the local community, Bo has successfully identified, initiated, and closed scores of land projects.
He is a past president of the New Hope Audubon Society and a former member of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation. He remains on the Botanical Garden Foundation Conservation Committee and is president of the Chapel Hill Bird Club.
Jin Bai received his Ph.D. in 2024 in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology program at NCSU and studies the drivers of urban bird diversity. He has extensive experience designing, coordinating, and assisting citizen science projects in the Triangle area, including organizing the Triangle Bird Count and bird-window collision monitoring. Jin is the Community Science Committee Chair and a board member of New Hope Bird Alliance.
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April 28, 2025
Robert Driver—Evolution and Functional Characterization of Olfactory Receptors in Birds
Vertebrates detect odor molecules with olfactory receptors (ORs), a gene family expressed in the olfactory epithelium. Among species, OR diversity is associated with reliance on smell, with some mammals exceeding 2,000 OR genes. Birds are the most speciose class of terrestrial vertebrates, inhabiting nearly all land environments and with diverse social structures and foraging strategies, yet were long thought to make limited use of olfactory signals. Recent behavioral work in birds has shown important roles for olfaction in foraging and species recognition, among other behaviors. Contributing to this surge of interest in avian olfaction, our recent work has shown that birds have hundreds more OR genes in their genomes than previously realized.
Dr. Driver received his B.S. in Biology from Muhlenberg College in 2009 and his M.S. degree in Biology in 2017 from Villanova University. In 2022, Robert received his PhD in Biology from East Carolina University. Robert is currently an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, in the lab of Dr. Hiroaki Matsunami, where he researches bird olfactory receptors and bird sense of smell.
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May 19, 2025
Bradley Scholten—Assessing the spread of antibiotic resistant Salmonella and E. coli in songbirds and at birdfeeders
Bradley will talk about his research which focuses on understanding the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria in songbirds, specifically looking at Salmonella and E. coli – two pathogens that can cause epidemics in both humans and birds. Currently, he is looking at potential sources for where songbirds acquire these bacteria. Ultimately, he hopes his research will contribute to solutions for limiting the spread of antibiotic resistance and zoonotic diseases.
Bradley is a fifth year PhD student in the Biology program at North Carolina State University, advised by Drs. Roland Kays and Martha Burford Reiskind. He is a 2020 Genetics and Genomics Scholar and a 2024 Global One Health Fellow.
Before starting his PhD, Bradley received his BS in Biology at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he studied schistosome parasites in common mergansers at inland lakes in Northern Michigan, and also researched how drone flying affects behaviors and stress physiology in tree swallows.
