EXCITING YOUTH BIRDING & LEARNING OPPORTUNITY:

The Doug Tarry Awards for the summer 2002 Young Omithologists Workshop are now open for application. The workshop will be held at Long Point Bird Observatory on Lake Erie from August 2 to August 9. This week of learning activities and fun will include bird banding, censusing, field identificatiOn, birding trips, bird skinning, guest lectures, warbler model making, and much more. Six lucky applicants aged 13 to 17 will be selected for the Doug Tarry Study Awards. These recipients will have all expenses (except travel costs) paid.

Applications are open until April 30th, 2002. For additional information and an application form, contact: Jody Allair at Bird Studies Canada email: lpbo@bsc-eoc.org), or visit the BSC web site (www.bsc- eog.org/lpbo/yow.html)[adapted from LPBO 33:3, Fall 2001]

NEWS FROM ABOUT: Compiled by J. Dan McAskill

A male Piping Plover banded While tending a nest at Cabot Provincial Park on June 25, 2001 was seen twice at Little Talbot Island by Patrick Leary first on Nov. 7 and then on Dec. 19 (from E-maii forwarded by Diane Amirault of CWS Sackville)

The causeway to Robinson's Island in the PEI National Park was blocked off on Nov. 25 because of the damage from the nor'wester (LM).

Congratulations to Bird Studies Canada which is in the process of completing its new headquarters, a

permanent home for its programs on the conservation of wild birds and their habitats. The grand opening is planned for June Ist, 2002.

AUTHOR’S AMONGST US: By J. Dan McAskill

How do you mix vivid descriptions of the colours, sounds, and behaviour of Columbia’s diversity of birds with the intrigue of mystery? How do you add in a discussion of mysticism and the psychological impact of helping to create atomic bombs with lessons in natural history, evolution, continental drift, and religious interpretation? James Munves, a Society member who splits his time between Morell and New York, has done just that in his book Andes Rising.

Mr. Munves takes the reader on an historical journey through bird evolution, museum development, and jealousies between scientists during the quest for what happened to Dr. Thomas Cooper, a nuclear physicist turned Peace Core volunteer, who re-discovers the Turquoise Dacnis-Tanager (Pseudodacnis harlaubx). As only partially documented records and study skins remain of this species, the competition to prove its existence through the collection of a specimen leads to political competition. The vehicles chosen by the author include: a Mother’s request for her Rabbi’s assistance in finding her son thought to have been lost in a landslide in Columbia; the discovery of her son’s (Dr. Cooper) notebooks; the exploration through these notes of Dr. Cooper’s personal journey and his internal discourse with the noted American omithologist Frank M. Chapman who collected thousands of bird skins and, among other books, wrote the Distribution of Bird Life in Columbia in 1917 .

The path on this journey is convoluted. There are wonderful details on bird behaviour and their selection of habitats as well as tidbits on evolutionary theory and many facets of natural history. The book draws the reader into the web of competition between scientists and Dr. Cooper’s need to ensure he does not contribute to the loss of this specres.

Andes Rising is published by New Directions.

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