Tuesday, September 13, 7:30 pm
Birding Ecuador presented by Jane and Fred Fallon
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While further afield than Costa Rica or Panama as a neotropical birding destination, Ecuador is becoming increasingly popular with North American birders. One of South America’s smaller countries, it is nonetheless larger than the UK; about the size of Colorado. Within that area is a wide variety of habitat, a consequence of the Andes Mountains bisecting the country and creating distinct zones of high and low altitude, and wet and dry forests – including a good chunk of Amazonian rainforest. As a result, the country’s species list is over 1,600 (of which 200 are migrants from North America), comparing favorably with such giants as Colombia and Venezuela. In this talk, examples of native species will be illustrated, with emphasis on the different families represented and their relation to habitat regions. Fred and Jane will also cover living conditions, infrastructure, and tips on travel.
About the Presenters: Jane Fallon earned a BS at Michigan State University and an MS in Mathematics at The Ohio State University. After working in Chicago for a couple of years she moved to Maryland. She likes to be outside whether birding, botanizing, hiking, kayaking, or gardening. Jane retired from Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in 2013.
Fred has a PhD in astronomy from the University of Florida and has conducted research at the University of South Florida, Goddard Space Flight Center, and NOAA. He is a native of this area where he started birding at age 14, and got really serious about 40 years ago after joining MOS and PGAS. Fred has long been active in bird conservation, for several years leading the MD Partners in Flight Habitat Committee, where he was proud to have helped write the ground-breaking manual “Habitat Management Guidelines for the Benefit of Land Birds in Maryland” in collaboration with great regional experts. While on a PGAS canoe trip, Fred met future wife Jane. Since then, they’ve birded together for over 30 years and been active in our Patuxent chapter. They’ve been happy taking a few excursions far afield such as this trip to Ecuador