Join Boulder County Audubon Society and meteorologist Bryan Guarente on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 to learn about how the wind influences bird migration.
Redwing. Photo from Audubon Guide to North American Birds.
You've found or chased vagrant, spring migrants in your many birding days on this planet. Those birds got here on the power of their own wings, fat reserves, hormones, and no doubt with the help of the wind. The relationship birds have with the wind is awe-inspiring. The physiological evolution from this relationship helps birds soar effortlessly while covering significant distances or float just above the water surface. Birds spend their days, nights, and most of their lives on the wing with the help of the wind.
Think about those vagrant migrants you've seen, they were the lucky ones because those winds weren't their death knell. Sure it pushed them off course, but they survived, where you got the chance to see them in all their glory. Let's take a look at some of those vagrant migrants, and see how the weather tells us their intriguing migration story. We'll explore some of the more intriguing migrants over the past year and show you the wind patterns that likely brought them.
Meteologist and Instructional Designer
Bryan Guarente is a meteorologist and instructional designer who grew up birding with his father in southeast Pennsylvania. Birding and weather first crossed paths during his undergraduate studies of meteorology at UNC in Greeley, CO. But the real convergence of the two occurred in graduate school at the University of Illinois, where listening for nocturnal spring migrants riding the low-level wind pattern helped to solidify the connections. Finding 27 species of warblers in one day in a postage-stamp-sized park along a stationary front was a highlight as well as an epiphany. After graduate school, Bryan moved back to Colorado and now works at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, training meteorologists on all things forecasting both nationally and internationally. He is excited to extend his work to help the birding community understand the relationship between weather and bird migration.
When: Tuesday, October 26,, 2021. The presentation starts at 7:15 PM. Everyone is encouraged to join early to work through any connection issues (the meeting room will be open at ~7:00 PM).
Where: This meeting will be held online. All participants will be muted upon entry to the meeting room. The chat feature will be on so you can write questions for the speaker.
Zoom link - click or copy and paste: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86431877525?pwd=aFkyd2hndW5PL2NjbkxvRjVmbEFCUT09
If you wish to join audio by telephone, you can also call either number below or find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kb5c2jtca. We highly recommend you also join the meeting by video (but don't connect audio) due to the visual nature of this presentation.
+1 301 715 8592 US
+1 253 215 8782 US