Annual visit to Tremont

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Huge thanks to Tiffany Beachy, the Citizen Science Coordinator at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, and her green-cheeked conure Rico—who spent the last part of the class on my shoulder—for inviting me to speak at their gonzo bird class recently.

Our topic of the day was Secrets of Backyard Birds. We're talking cardinals, chickadees, titmice, robins, blue jays and their ilk. The goal of the discussion was to make the class aware that all birds have fascinating lives. Just because they are common doesn't mean they are dull. We discussed communication, courtship, mate selection, parental duties, the bright red color of male cardinals  and even bird divorce.

I also spoke briefly about my three books Natural Histories, Ghost Birds and Ephemeral by Nature, all published by the University of Tennessee Press.

The cover of the newest depicts a cerulean warbler and Tiffany even appears in the opening pages of that chapter. Her graduate thesis at UT was based on her studies of the sky blue wood warbler whose population is in decline.

Thanks, Tiffany!

Why am I so red?

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