Eastern Box Turtle

2012 Conference Theme

The Secret Lives of Birds and Turtles

Our speaker of the week, Christopher Swarth, will be discussing turtle ecology and conservation and waterbird and seabird ecology and reproductive biology.

The turtle talk will focus on turtles of the New England and the mid-Atlantic regions. Chris studies four species of turtles and will use data from his projects as the take off point. He will present summaries of what we know about population status, biology, diet, movements, and efforts to conserve turtle populations.

The seabird and waterbird talk will focus on such species as loons, waterfowl (ducks and geese), shorebirds, seabirds (storm petrels, shearwaters, auks). Chris will use slides to describe the natural history and life history strategies of these birds. He will use personal experiences from his studies as the foundation for his talk.

Chris promises to show us lots of slides and also plans to lead some walks and field trips around the island to observe birds and turtles. Birds, of course, will probably be much easier to observe than turtles. But there may be turtles on the island and if there are, we will search ahead of time to determine where they are so we can show others. On the bird field trips, we will look at whatever species we can.