Sierra NaturalistDavid Lukas
2010 Spring/Summer Calendar of Events
April 16-17, Shady Creek Outdoor Education Foundation Festival, Yuba-Sutter County Fairgrounds; www.shadycreekoef.org
On Friday evening I will be giving a keynote address on raptors and birds, then on Saturday I will be attending the festival and signing books.
April 17-18, Yuba Watershed Institute,www.yubawatershedinstitute.org/
On Saturday night I will be giving a talk on "Understanding Bird Songs" in Nevada City, followed by a morning bird walk on Sunday.
April 23, Point Reyes Bird Festival, www.eacmarin.org/PRBF.php
For the first-ever Point Reyes Bird Festival, I will be leading a bird walk at Bear Valley/Olema Marsh from 1-4 p.m. on Friday the 23rd, then signing books at the festival dinner on the 24th.
April 25, Limantour Beach hike (offered by the Marin County Open Space District) www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/PK/Main/mcosd/os_walks.asp
Join me on this free public walk. We will meet at the Laguna Trailhead, just past the Point Reyes Youth Hostel, then do a wonderful hike out the Laguna Trail and back along the Coast Trail.
May 1, Kern River Valley Spring Nature Festival http://kern.audubon.org/KRVSNF.htm.
I will be the keynote speaker at this year's fesitval, presenting an evening program on birdsong.
May 14-16, Yosemite Twin Valleys Waterfall Workshops (offered by Yexplore) http://yexplore.com/twinvalleys.htm
As part of the Workshops, I will be offering a variety of walks to explore the birds and natural history of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valleys.
June 5, Sierra Earth Fest (sponsored by the Mountain Sage coffeeshop and nursery), www.mtnsage.com
This lovely festival is a perennial local favorite event in the Yosemite region. Among the many talks, workshops, and musical offerings I will be giving a presentation on bird songs.
June 7-11, Natural History of Sierra Nevada Birds (offered by the Sierra Nevada Field Campus) http://www.sfsu.edu/~sierra/Courses.html
This class is a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in a thorough examination of a wide variety of Sierra Nevada birds. Topics include identification, behavior, and life history; and we spend a lot of time simply enjoying the birds we’re finding. The Field Campus, as many of you know, is a great place and these classes fill up quickly! [Note: This summer, for the first time, I will bring along the rough draft of our manuscript for the forthcoming field guide to birds of the Sierra Nevada, and we can try using it in the field as a reference.]
June 13-18, Bird Identification by Song (offered by the Sierra Nevada Field Campus) http://www.sfsu.edu/~sierra/Courses.html
Wow! It is an incredible honor to be taking over this legendary class first taught by the famed ornithologist Luis Baptista, then taught many years by Field Campus Director, Jim Steele. I sat in on Jim’s amazing class last year and was astounded by how much he taught us about bird songs, so it’s very exciting to be offering this class myself this year. We will focus on identification by song, plus the anatomical features and behavioral uses of bird song.
July 5-9, Exploring Sierra Nevada Natural History (offered by Sierra Nevada Field Campus) http://www.sfsu.edu/~sierra/Courses.html
Jack Laws (author of the bestselling “Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada”) and I will be co-teaching this intensive 5-day program that delves into all aspects of Sierra Nevada natural history. It’s a ton of fun and we cover a lot of information! This class is very popular and fills up quickly!
July 23-25, Sierra Nevada Natural History (offered by the Yosemite Association) www.yosemite.org
Join me on this remarkable 3-day outing at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park! Camp out under the stars, watch the sun rise, and relax into three days of hiking and exploring the natural history of the High Sierra.
August 27-29, Birds of the East Side (offered by the Mono Lake Committee) www.monolake.org
Even after 15 years of teaching at Mono Lake, every summer I can’t get enough of this magical place, so it’s a pleasure to be returning again to teach this ever-popular seminar on the birds of the Mono Basin. We’ll be exploring a wide variety of habitats, with an emphasis on the large eastside lakes that attract rare vagrants in late summer.