Zoom Program: Feather Trails-A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds

Wednesday, January 14

Birds are visible, vocal sentinels that alert us to environmental harms. In her book, Feather Trails-A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds, Sophie Osborn shares her experiences reintroducing endangered Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows and California Condors to the wild. Sophie explores the threats that imperiled these birds and reveals that what harmed them threatens us too. She will discuss what led to the endangerment of these three captivating species, recount the efforts of biologists to recover their populations and read a few excerpts fom her book that describe what it was like to work with these magnificent birds.

Bio: Sophie A. H. Osborn is an award-winning environmental writer and wildlife biologist whose work has included the study and conservation of more than a dozen bird species in the Americas. She contributed to reintroduction efforts for several endangered birds and served as the field manager for the California Condor Recovery Program in Arizona for four years. Her first book, Condors in Canyon Country, won the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award for Nature and the Environment. Reviewers for the American Birding Association (ABA) chose her second book, Feather Trails, as their favorite bird book of 2024. Sophie also writes the Words for Birds blog on Substack.

Please click on the link below to register for the meeting; you then will be emailed the link to the Zoom meeting.

Zoom Program: North American Bird Declines are Greatest Where Species are Most Abundant

Wednesday, February 11 

This program is a follow-up to our February 2021 30 Billion Birds Lost program by Ken Rosenberg of Cornell. This program will discuss a new expansive study of North American bird population trends that was published in Science May 2025.

Effective bird conservation has been limited by a lack of fine-scale population data. This talk presents new analyses using data from eBird to estimate changes in abundance for 495 North American bird species from 2007 to 2021 at a 27-kilometer resolution. Results reveal widespread but spatially complex declines; while 75% of species are declining overall, 97% show both increasing and decreasing trends in different areas. Strikingly, declines are often steepest where species are most abundant. These findings offer a new lens on population dynamics and provide sharper tools to guide urgent, targeted conservation efforts.

Bio: Dr. Courtney Davis is an Assistant Professor of Global Biodiversity and Ecoinformatics at Cornell University. Her research integrates large-scale data science, ecology, and conservation biology to understand the status and trends of biodiversity. She leads interdisciplinary projects that harness participatory science data, remote sensing, AI, and statistical modeling to inform conservation decision making and practice. Her work has been featured in leading scientific journals and widely used by agencies, NGOs, and the private sector working to conserve global biodiversity.

Birds and Other Creatures of Ghana

Wednesday, March 11

In October, 2024, Kathryn and Roger Frieden went on a group birding trip to Ghana where they saw many fascinating birds and other creatures. In this program, Kathryn will share information about their adventure (and Roger’s photos).

Bio: Kathryn and Roger Frieden started birding and learning about birds around 15 years ago when their children were all off to college. Their first birding trip was to south Texas with Mass Audubon in 2011, and they have been enjoying birding travel ever since. In 2015, Kathryn started volunteering for NH Bird Records shortly after retiring as an OB-GYN physician. They lived in Manchester for many years, and moved to Nottingham 8 years ago, so now they get to include Pawtuckaway Lake birds in their yard list.

Ecology and Conservation of Grassland Birds

Wednesday, April 8

Grassland birds such as the Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark are declining throughout their ranges. In this talk, we review the history and ecology of these species, with a focus on New Hampshire and the Northeast US, then shift to the conservation challenges they face and some of the things people can do to overcome these threats.

Bio: Pam Hunt has been interested in birds since the tender age of 12, when an uncle took her to Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge in NJ. She went on to earn a B.S. in biology from Cornell University, M.A. in zoology from the University of Montana, and then a Ph.D. from Dartmouth College in 1995. Pam came to NH Audubon in 2000 after five years as adjunct faculty at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH. In her current position as Avian Conservation Biologist, she works closely with NH Fish and Game to coordinate and prioritize bird research and monitoring in the state, and also authored NH’s “State of the Birds” report. Specific areas of interest include habitat use by early successional birds (particularly whip-poor-wills), conservation of aerial insectivores (e.g., swifts and swallows), and the effects of events outside the breeding season on long-distance migrants. Pam also coordinated the “NH Dragonfly Survey,” a five-year project that mapped distributions of these insects throughout the state and remains active in the dragonfly field.

Program: Belize, a Perfect Winter Birding Getaway

Wednesday, May 13

Join Becky Suomala on a (virtual) birding trip to tropical Belize in Central America. This English-speaking country has great birding, but also unique archeological sites, and snorkeling from its islands in the Caribbean. From birds to butterflies, fish and scenery, Becky will share highlights from these special places. Her photos are from a recent February trip with several friends that was a perfect winter birding getaway.

Bio: Rebecca Suomala is a Biologist Emerita with NH Audubon. She worked for NH Audubon from 1988 until 2024 in a variety of positions. In 2005, she completed her Master’s in Wildlife Ecology from the University of New Hampshire, conducting research into songbird migration stopover for her thesis. She studied Common Nighthawks for almost 20 years and has banded birds on Appledore Island since 1994. As an avid birder, she has explored much of New Hampshire and has traveled to many national and international birding destinations.

Behind the Scenes Habitat Management At Odiorne Point State Park

Wednesday, June 10

Odiorne Point State Park is not only a favorite birding Hot Spot, it is also where one of the largest and most successful invasive plant control projects in NH has been improving habitat for birds and other wildlife. During this program, we will look for birds and learn from the Rockingham County Conservation District about all of the incredible habitat work that has been completed and still planned at Odiorne.

Bio: Arianna Spear, Tracy Degnan and Lenny Lord of the Rockingham County Conservation District and Matt Tarr of the UNH Cooperative Extension. 

The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet

Wednesday, July 8

At a time when the news for birds (for the planet!) has rarely seemed more grim, there is reason for hope. Despite the odds today, all around the world people are actually reviving bird populations, providing a roadmap for wider recovery. In his newest book, The Return of the Oystercatcher, best-selling author and researcher Scott Weidensaul shows why creating a world that works for birds will work for everything, including us. He’ll trace this inspiring arc from a tiny island off the Maine coast to the bird-rich Danube Delta on the Ukrainian border, and vulture restoration in the mountains of Bulgaria to across the world’s largest and most intact forest in Canada where Indigenous communities are permanently protecting hundreds of millions of acres of some of the most important migratory bird habitat on Earth. This is a dose of optimism we all need.

Bio: Scott Weidensaul is the author of nearly 30 books on natural history, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Living on the Wind and his New York Times bestseller A World on the Wing. His latest book, Return of the Oystercatcher coming in April 2026, showcases what’s working for bird conservation around the world. Weidensaul is a contributing editor for Audubon magazine, a columnist for Bird Watcher’s Digest, and writes for a variety of other publications including the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory’s Living Bird publication. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and an active field researcher, studying Saw-whet Owl migration for 30 years, as well as winter hummingbirds in the East, bird migration in Alaska, and the winter movements of Snowy Owls through Project SNOWstorm, which he co-founded.