Speaker: Bob Sundstrom
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Time: Social at 7:00 PM, Program at 7:30 PM
Place: United Way Center, 50 Waugh (Please note new location!)

Map

From deep marine bays and fir-draped mountains to steep basalt canyons and broad expanses of sagebrush, the diversity of Washington's landscapes and habitats is almost without equal. And the region supports a varied bird life to match. Early June finds the Pacific Northwest at the peak of the nesting season, with many species in full song and in finest breeding colors. Tonight's presentation will highlight the Northwest's natural world at this season, especially the birds, and help preview the tour of the region that HAS and Bob Sundstrom will run in June 2008. Sooty Grouse boom in the Olympic Mountains, overlooking Rhinoceros Auklets and Black Oystercatchers on the bays below. Varied Thrushes and Townsend's Solitaires sing in the Cascades by day, where Flammulated Owls hunt moths by night. Eleven species of woodpeckers roam the forests, including macabre White-headeds, elegant Lewis's, and spruce-loving Three-toeds, not to mention three species of sapsuckers. MacGillivray's Warblers sing from brushy hillsides, American Dippers bob along rushing creeks, and tiny Calliope Hummingbirds hold vigil from favorite perches where Golden Eagles glide overhead. Wildflowers are rampant.

Bob has led VENT tours since 1989. Destinations have included Hawaii, Mexico, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, Iceland, Papua New Guinea, the Southwest Pacific islands, Antarctica, the Bering Sea, and many destinations throughout North America. Bob takes a strong interest in both the natural and cultural settings of his tours. He earned his doctorate at the University of Washington. Bob and his wife Sally live in the rural Scatter Creek Valley south of Olympia, Washington. Bob lived in Seattle for more than two decades, continues to teach birding workshops, and leads a program of short, regional tours that begin in the Seattle area. During two seasons of work in the Pribilof Islands, he helped chronicle the occurrence of North American bird rarities. A skilled birder with a special interest in bird song, Bob has served on the boards of several nature and conservation organizations, is a member of the Washington State Bird Records Committee, and is a co-author of The National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest. When not on tour, Bob keeps busy as the lead writer for the daily public radio program BirdNote. BirdNote is archived at www.birdnote.org.