Trip Details

Join Pete Dunne for a description of his latest book, The Courage of Birds.   From your back yard to the rim of the Arctic Ice sheet, birds have evolved remarkable specializations and strategies that allow them to survive winter’s hardships– from diminished hours of daylight, to reduced food supplies, to temperature cold enough to freeze an eider. It is a tale of hardship and survival, nature pushing life’s limits of life to its inhospitable rim, and the remarkable adaptations that permit winsome chickadees and hardy Ptarmigan to drive a wedge into winter and win passage to Spring, winter’s finish line. It must take great courage to be a bird and this book is a celebration. Come prepared to marvel at the hardiness and ingenuity of birds whose specializations have made them apex denizens of planet earth. Consider: no Emperor Penguin has ever survived a winter in the Alaskan interior but chickadees do so routinely. Find out how.

Meets at the Vet's Hall, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx