2017 Annual Meeting features “Birds of Prey”

Nick Baer Birds of Prey

Don’t miss Professor Nick Baer’s slideshow program on Birds of Prey

 

The Annual SRK Greenway Meeting will be held at Our Lady of Fatima Church in New London, NH on Sunday March 12th. Dr. Nick Baer, Chair of Natural Sciences at Colby-Sawyer College, will present a slideshow program on “Birds of Prey” exploring the incredible diversity of raptors in New England.

Nick’s talk highlights characteristics of local hawks and other birds of prey to help attendees learn to identify these fascinating creatures and teach where and when to look for them. He will also explain the varied behaviors and survivorship strategies of these hunters of the sky, from huge Bald Eagles to the much smaller American Kestrel.

Nick’s interest in hawks began more than 20 years ago when he first volunteered to help with a bird banding project. As he walked out in the field he saw someone holding two peregrine falcons while another falcon was being removed from a net. Nick remembers telling the other participants, “I don’t know what you are doing, but I want to be part of this for the rest of my life.” Indeed, he has been volunteering at the Cape May Raptor Banding Project Inc. since then, banding birds every fall during the migration to learn more about their populations. Most recently, he has been working with his students at Colby-Sawyer College to study how these birds may transport West Nile Virus and other pathogens during their migrations to other regions.

Please come! This event is free and open to the public.

It all starts with a pot-luck supper at 5:00 in the lower level of the Lady Fatima Church in New London, NH. Jean LaChance has volunteered to organize the dinner so please call her (927-4345) sooner rather than later to let her know what you would like to contribute. There will be a brief business meeting after dinner followed by the Birds of Prey discussion. If you are only coming for the presentation, plan to arrive about 6:30.

Winter Hike: Up and over Mt. Kearsarge

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Winter Peak Bagger’s Special

Going up and over Mount Kearsarge is a great day hike in the Summer. But, making that same hike in the winter requires more time, the proper equipment and of course favorable weather. Luckily, we had all these things going for us on Sunday Jan 29th.

Nick Baer and Dave Gardner led a group of eleven SRK hikers starting at the gate to the Winslow State Park at 9am. Hiking up the Barlow Trail with microspikes and chocolate we all made it to the summit with smiles on our faces. A very quick lunch at the top was all that the cold wind would allow us as we continued down the Lincoln Trail to lower elevations.

The Lincoln Trail has some very steep sections that were covered in ice which required us to go slowly and carefully. But we eventually made it down the 6 miles to Kearsarge Valley Road in Sutton – where we had left cars to shuttle us back to Winslow. The Lincoln Trail goes through some beautiful woods that start out predominantly as spruce and hemlock in the State Park and then transition into Beech and Birch as you get into the Society for Protection of NH Forests’ Black Mountain Reservation. We discovered a hollow full of moose tracks and bushwhacked around a bit hoping to find antlers in the snow but to no avail.

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It was a great winter hike and a very easy-going group of people.  The hikers included Jeff Yegian, Sue and Don Elliott, Rick and Harriett Fingeroth, Brad and Jackie Esthus, Nick and Lili Baer, and Dave and Ada Gardner.