Upcoming Programs

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• Program - Birding Ecuador

  • When
    9 Sep 2024
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and via Zoom

  On Monday September 9, 2024 Kevin McGrath will present The Bucket Birding Adventure Group's 19-Day birding tour of southern Ecuador. A group of 8 club members flew to Guayaquil Ecuador on June 21 and spent 19 days traveling over 1000 miles along the border with Peru to see over 525 species of endemic, unusual, and some rare local specialties as well as a smattering of North American migrants. 

  The presenter and trip organizer Kevin McGrath is a retired Environmental Hydrogeologist who spent his career in the Capital District protecting and/or remediating the Hudson and Mohawk River system. He has been an active birder, club member, field trip leader, and past president. This is the second trip to Ecuador he has organized for a group from the club. We hope you will enjoy hearing about and seeing part of the photolog of this amazing once in a life-time adventure.

  
  

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• Program - Birding Madagascar

  • When
    7 Oct 2024
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    via Zoom only

  Birding Madagascar, with a side of South Africa (Or, Birding Gondwana Pt 4)

  With Gregg Recer

  Lemurs, and chameleons, and bizarre weevils, oh my! Or, if you prefer, ground-rollers, and asities, and vangas, oh my! Whichever, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore. Madagascar is the third-largest tropical island, as well as the second-largest island country, in the world. Although originally at the center of the Gondwana supercontinent, it has been isolated from other land masses for about 90 million years. The result is a very high degree of endemism in its birds, as well as other fauna and flora. Five bird families (and two orders) are unique to the island and, of course, all eight families of lemurs occur (or occurred) only there as well. The diversity and uniqueness of lizards on the island is also quite stunning. Gregg Recer and Cathy Graichen visited the country on a birding tour in 2023 and this talk will share their experiences throughout the island. As a bonus, we'll throw in some scenery and birds from nearby South Africa.

  Gregg Recer is a former HMBC president. He and his wife, Cathy Graichen, have been HMBC members since 1989 and have been focused on world birding for the last 20 years.  

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• Program - Unimaginable - One Birder’s Big Idea, another’s Big Year

  • When
    4 Nov 2024
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC and via Zoom

  Unimaginable - One Birder’s Big Idea, another’s Big Year

  Speaker: Drew Hopkins, Environmental Educator, NYSDEC Five Rivers

  Join local birder Drew Hopkins as he shares his unique version of a “Big Year”, with stories and photos from his travels to key birding destinations across North America. He has set off fulfilling an unlikely dream made of never ending challenges, finding the world’s kindest people, and extraordinary moments. 

  Drew is an environmental educator at Fiver Rivers Environmental Education Center, avid birder, and coffee propelled dad/husband in the times between.

  
  

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• HMBC Holiday Party and Program - Birding New Mexico

  • When
    2 Dec 2024
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Five Rivers EEC

  Birding New Mexico with Sue Adair

  All three of the major bird tour companies include a Winter New Mexico trip on their rosters, and after visiting herself Sue now understands why! Sue and her husband John spent 4 weeks in New Mexico in January/February 2023, and she is eager to share the birds and other natural features of this wonderful state. Her trip included  multiple visits to the incomparable Bosque Apache National Wildlife Refuge as well as too many of the state parks of South-Central New Mexico.

  Sue has been an avid birder for almost 40 years and has traveled across the country and on many international trips to find birds and enjoy the natural world. Sue is also a professional artist concentrating on drawings of wild birds for the past 15 years.

  
  

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• Program - The Plumage Trade: How Fashion Killed a Warden, and How Tea Parties Killed Fashion.

  • When
    6 Jan 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom ONLY

  Here is the story of the people who nearly wiped out Florida's abundant long-legged waders in a drive to profit from their plumes, and the people who gave their time and their lives to stop them. A game warden took a bullet to protect egrets, another one vanished with barely a trace, and two women in Boston became turn-of-the-twentieth-century influencers to save the birds. The result: the first official chapter of the National Audubon Society, and an end to the plumage trade.

  Bestselling author Randi Minetor writes the Birdfinding and Best Easy Bird Guides series for Falcon Guides/Globe Pequot Press, and is the author of Backyard Birding and Butterfly Gardening for Lyons Press. Her most recent book, The Complete Language of Birds, is an encyclopedia that unites classic illustrations, science, folklore, and mythology about more than 400 bird species around the world. Her story about the plumage trade appears in her book Death in the Everglades: Accidents, Foolhardiness, and Mayhem in South Florida. She writes for Birding Magazine and North American Birds, and serves as president of the Rochester Birding Association in upstate New York.  

  
  

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• Birding and Eclipse Excursion to Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee

  • When
    3 Feb 2025
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    via Zoom only

  Speaker: John Carson, details TBA

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