King Penguins©Manfred Kusch
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The public is invited to join Yolo Audubon and its members for the monthly general meeting on February 21, 2024. The meeting is free and is held at the Davis Senior Center at 646 A Street in Davis. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. and runs until 8:50 p.m. Folks are welcome to arrive at 7:00 p.m. for gathering with other attendees before the program.
This program can also be attended over Zoom where the meeting starts at 7:30pm.
In January 2018 and again in December 2022, Manfred Kusch joined a group of 6 bird and wildlife photographers exploring several islands of the Falkland archipelago, moving from the capital of Stanley and the famous penguin colonies at Volunteer Point on East Falkland to Sealion, Saunders, and Bleaker islands before returning to Stanley. Transfers between the islands were provided by sturdy two-engine Islander planes capable of landing and take-off on dirt or grass landing strips. His group stayed in, for the most part, comfortable guest houses run by the sheep ranching families that were typically the only occupant of the island they visited. Located off the tip of South America in the South Atlantic, the treeless and wind-swept islands offer rare solitude and an austere beauty that form the backdrop for their rich birdlife and sea mammal breeding colonies. Besides five species of penguins, large colonies of albatrosses, cormorants, various predators like skuas and petrels, raptors like Southern Crested and Striated caracaras, various species of geese, swans, grebes, and ducks, sea mammals like large Southern Elephant Seals and Sea Lions could be found everywhere and be easily approached and photographed. Manfred will present some of the wildlife photos from his trips and also include photos of the landscapes taken from the ground and the air.
Zoom meeting registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYucemgqDIiEtTGzlXy6X9Co9XgHoDtgFPB
This event is free, and you do not need to be a member of Yolo Audubon to attend. If you would like to join, visit https://yoloaudubon.org/join-renew-donate. If you only want to receive the monthly newsletter, visit https://yoloaudubon.org/yolo-audubon-newsletter.
SPEAKER BIO
Manfred is a retired UCD faculty member who taught in the departments of French & Italian and Comparative Literature. He has had a life-long interest in birds and took up bird photography in his retirement. He has traveled with small groups of international bird photographers throughout the Americas from Patagonia and the Falklands to Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, as well as more recently to Borneo and Australia. Locally, his large garden adjacent to Putah Creek west of Davis has hosted many Yolo Audubon bird walks and has been the site of a by now 12-year hummingbird study undertaking by UCD faculty and students.