Miracles of migration talk on Sunday December 9 at Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Here is the press release from the Boyce Thompson Arboretum:
Marvels of Migration Photography-Lecture By Stan Cunningham Dec. 9  Last winter Arizona birders and photographers were surprised when a wayward  Common Goldeneye spent a few days at Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, near  the scenic copper-mining town of Superior, about 45-minutes drive due East of  Mesa. Would you believe that of the 850 bird species in North America, more than  300 leave the continent and spend the winter in Central and South America and  the Caribbean? In preparation, some transform themselves into “super birds”:  gorging until they accumulate fat reserves that almost double their body weight  in order to have the energy for transcontinental flight? Others take an opposite approach - flying just a few hours each day. And how do they find their way?  An internal magnetic compass, eyes that can see  polarized light or even magnetic directions, memorized celestial maps along with  many other methods have all have been hypothesized and some convincing data  collected. Research biologist and ASU Polytechnic Wildlife Professor Stan  Cunningham will share these and more insights into avian migration during a  lecture Dec. 9 at Boyce Thompson Arboretum accompanied by his impressive  photography of birds on the wing. The presentation begins at 1:30 p.m. in the  lecture room of the Smith Building and is open to the public, included with  Arboretum daily admission of $9, and no pre-registration required. For the past three decades Cunningham has lived an adventurous life you'd expect  to see depicted on film: crawling into black bear dens during wintertime as a  wildlife biologist for the Arizona Game & Fish Department and spening a month  each summer in Alaska as a professional photographer, shooting vivid pictures of  Brown  bears for magazines, tourist lodges and leading Alaskan photo safaris and  ecotourism trips. A professor of wildlife biology at Arizona State University Polytechnic since  2006, Cunningham is known for his decades of research about bears, mountain  lions, and the ecological effects of wildfire. On Sunday, Dec. 9, he will share  some of the secrets scientists have learned on migration and navigation along  with some of his most breathtaking avian photography.

I also will be talking about photographing migrating birds.  I hope to see you there.

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