PLEASE NOTE: This event has been rescheduled to November 21
Maine Audubon and our partners are really proud of our science-based approach to our work, and we host many programs to share the latest research, data, and findings of top experts in the fields amongst which we work. However, when we talk to these experts before they present and after meetings we have, we get to hear stories. Short stories about moments, most often rooted in a very specific time and place, are what usually get us most animated and connected, with both our work and each other.
As we all experience the transition to another Maine winter together, we’ve invited some of the keenest and most passionate observers we know to join us for an evening at Gilsland Farm to share personal stories from late fall and early winter in Maine.
In November, most of the plants around us are becoming dormant, while many insects, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians are settling into places to hide and sleep until spring. Humans have all kinds of preparations for winter, many spurred more by changes in temperature, daylight, and other environmental cues than the calendars and clocks that seem to dominate our doings. It’s impossible to miss the phenology around us this time of year, and it is a multisensory experience with tastes, smells, sounds, and feelings we only get fleetingly this time of year and in this place. Our storytellers are professional ecologists, biologists, land stewards, and natural history authors. Each of them has chosen two stories which connect them, and which they share to help connect us, to November in Maine.
We are thrilled to introduce the lineup of storytellers for an event we’re calling Phenomenal, Fall 2024. Join us on Thursday, November 21 to hear from:
Chris Maher, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Science, Technology, and Health at the University of Southern Maine. She is a behavioral ecologist who studies variation in social behavior in mammals, including a study of the woodchucks of Gilsland Farm which she has led since 1998 and was featured in The New York Times. No one has spent more time outdoors closely observing the natural communities across seasonal changes at Gilsland Farm. While studying our resident woodchuck population, Chris has become a close partner for Maine Audubon on numerous other projects, and has engaged countless USM students in meaningful hands-on research and experience. Chris is also a member of BirdSafe Maine, also surveying the streets of downtown Portland to record bird collisions with buildings.
Alexander Fish, Ph.D. is the Endangered & Threatened Species Biologist for Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and broadly works with Maine’s most at-risk wildlife. He collaboratively oversees conservation and management of the 57 species which have been listed under the Maine Endangered Species Act, first mandated by the legislature in 1975. Alex also coordinates the Maine Wildlife Action Plan, a pro-active conservation tool for declining and intrinsically rare wildlife not listed as Endangered or Threatened, and he coordinates updates to Maine’s Species of Special Concern list. Alex has a broad background in avian conservation, but more aptly describes himself as a naturalist as heart, an ardent outdoorsman, and has more interests than time in the day! Maine Audubon partners directly with Alex and MIF&W on our Piping Plover, Least Tern, and Saltmarsh Sparrow projects, and rare/threatened/endangered (RTE) species are part of so much of our other work.
Scott Weidensaul is an ornithologist and bestselling author of numerous books and articles who celebrates the natural world—particularly birds and bird migration—in his research, his writing and his public speaking. Weidensaul spearheads a number of major research projects focusing on bird migration. He has written more than 30 books on natural history, including Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Scott lectures widely on wildlife and environmental topics, and is an active field researcher, specializing in the study of migration in owls, hummingbirds and passerines. Scott lives in New Hampshire, but he and Maine are very familiar with each other from his many trips here for lectures and to direct the ornithology program at the Hog Island Audubon Camp. We are thrilled to have him back at Gilsland Farm.
Phenomenal is a hybrid program. Come in person to enjoy snacks, drinks, and mingling or tune into the online livestream. For more information or to register, visit our event calendar.
