Mass Audubon Bird-a-thon, May 16 & 17

Mass Audubon is celebrating the 25th year of its statewide Bird-a-thon competition on May 16 & 17. 

Help Massachusetts Audubon raise needed dollars by participating in Bird-a-thon 2008.  All funds from the event go to the sanctuary or program of your choice. 

A round-the-clock event, Bird-a-thon starts at 6:00 pm on May 16 and ends at 6:00 pm on May 17. Join a team and make a pledge! The more pledges, the more money we will raise, and that's good news for the Mass Audubon sanctuaries and programs that will benefit!  For more information go to: http://www.massaudubon.org/news/index.php?id=950&type=news

Flight Path Plymouth Beach, Saturday, May 3 - November 30, 2008

A new exhibit at Plimoth Plantation Visitor Center gallery. Meet nature photographer Jim Fenton, Goldenrod Foundation artist in residence, whose more than 80 striking images are the feature of this exhibit providing a close-up of coastal waterbird life and revealing behavior that is often difficult to observe in the wild.

Jim’s bird photography has appeared in publications of the Massachusetts and National Audubon Societies, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife, as well as Birders World, Wild Bird and several newspapers, including The Boston Globe. His images appear on numerous wildlife and birding websites.

Free with museum admission.
Flight Path will be open free of charge to current members of Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Mass Audubon and Goldenrod Foundation before our Thursday lecture / movie evenings from 5 pm to 7pm.
May 15, June 12, July 17, July 24, August 21,
September 11, October 16 and October 30.

For more information go to:
http://www.plimoth.org/flightpath/FlightPath_calendar_pdf.pdf

Seabird and Whale Tale Cruises: Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Join the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA) and OceanQuest Hands-on Marine Education (OQ) for an exciting marine wildlife cruise to support local marine education. Wildlife experts Wayne Petersen (Massachusetts Audubon), David Clapp (Natural History Services) and Dr. John C. Jahoda (Bridgewater State College) lead this informative excursion to view coastal marine wildlife off New England. 

Our course is set along the beautiful Cape Cod coast, traveling in style aboard the “Tails of the Sea”, a 110’ luxury commercial whale-watching vessel owned and operated by the Captain John Boats of Plymouth. The cruise is from 8 A.M. – 6 P.M. and leaves from the Plymouth Town Pier. Enjoy our fully guided commentary, plankton demonstrations, chumming for seabirds, a full galley of delicious homemade food and our free nature-themed onboard raffle.

Please visit www.OceanQuest.org or www.NECWA.org to learn more about this amazing trip or to download the registration form. Or call 508-385-7656 to book your reservation today. 

Pre-Sale tickets are $95 for this all day event. After May 1st, the ticket price increases to $110. Reserve your ticket today for space is limited to ensure a comfortable ride offshore.

To check our past sightings as well as view photographs, go to www.necwa.org/trips.html. For more trip information, contact Krill Carson at 508-946-4345 or krillcarson@mac.com or call OceanQuest at 508-385-7656. This is a fundraising event for NECWA and OQ who are both registered 501(c) 3 non-profit organizations. 

Museum of Science Firefly Citizen Science Project

Many people have wonderful childhood memories of warm summer nights in meadows alive with the flashing of fireflies. But as adults, we rarely see them. Are fireflies disappearing from our landscape? If so, why, and what can we do about it?

Help researchers determine why fireflies seem to be declining in Massachusetts. The Citizen Science Firefly Project will show you how to collect scientific data in a manner both useful to firefly researchers and fun for the whole family. Using your own backyard as a data collection site, chart the occurrence of fireflies throughout the season (May through August 2008) and add this data to that of hundreds of other Citizen Scientists to create a picture of the status of fireflies in the state.

Collecting large amounts of data is the only way scientists can learn why fireflies are declining in numbers and what can be done to reverse this trend. Using Citizen Scientists is the only way scientists can collect large amounts of data.

Becoming a Citizen Scientist is easy and fun. Whether you participate as an individual or a family, it is a great way to foster a lifelong interest in science and nature as well as a greater understanding of natural history.

For more information go to: http://www.mos.org/firefly or contact:

Don Salvatore
Museum of Science
Science Park
Boston, MA 02114
dsalvatore@mos.org
(617) 589-0347

Visit the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History website to view information about their upcoming programs, or call 508-896-3867.

Visit Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary's website to view dates, times and subjects of upcoming lectures. Call the sanctuary at 508-349-2615 for more information and to register.  

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