Speakers

Please plan to join Audubon Miami Valley at its Monday, April 8 monthly chapter meeting scheduled at 7:30 PM in the Community Conference Room on the 2nd floor of the Lebanon Citizens National Bank, 30 West Park Place, Oxford, OH. This month’s speaker is Anne Balogh, Conservation Manager at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus, OH. Her program, Bird-friendly Communities, will focus on the new Strategic Flyway Plan that considers creating bird-friendly communities as one of the five main conservation strategies for Audubon.

Anne will talk about some exciting ongoing programs at the Grange Insurance AudubonCenter, such as Lights Out and the Audubon at Home program, focusing on what you and your communities can do to be bird-friendly. Topics will touch on native, non-native and invasive plants and “bird-scaping”, bird-friendly building and citizen science.

Anne has a BS in environmental science from Allegheny College and a MS in biology from Towson University. She grew up in NE Ohio, but her love of conservation and environmental education has led her to many wonderful places to live and work. She worked multiple seasons as a biological technician for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington DC. She has been a bird bander in Virginia, Montana, Pennsylvania and Ohio, an instructor for the Yellowstone Association in Yellowstone National Park, a raptor counter in Minnesota, and now she is thrilled to be the conservation manager at Grange Insurance Audubon Center.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, “Spring is in the Air” with David Russell, Department of Zoology, 7:00pm, Room, 218 Pearson Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Each spring millions of birds migrate from the tropics back to the temperate region and the boreal forest. This fallout enriches our lives and renews our energy. Whether in the field or at a banding station one cannot help be impressed by the diversity of these erstwhile travelers. How to cope with such a wave of spring returners? Dave will try to bring our ears and eyes back in shape after eight months absence.

Dave Russell is a professor who teaches ornithology at Miami University and runs the Avian Research and Education Institute bird banding station at Hueston Woods State Park. He and his wife Jill also do research on Boreal Owls in the summer while teaching in Alaska. They have also developed a fascination for Peony’s and Peony farming in Alaska.

Monday, May 13, 2013 “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hog Island” with Ben and Lynne Mattox of the Talawanda Schools, 7:30 p.m., 2nd Floor Community Room, Lebanon Citizens National Bank, 30 Park Place West, Oxford, Ohio.  

Ben and Lynne Mattox, the proud recipients of the AMV scholarship spent a wonderful week at Maine Audubon’s Hog Island workshop for environmental educators this July. During their presentation they will present a slide show documenting their experience and share how the workshop has influenced their teaching of environmental concepts to students this year. They had many first time experiences including bird sightings, geological structures, stars visible only where the lights do not shine at night, as well as botanical treasures, none of which will soon be forgotten. Ben is currently in his 26th year of teaching science, 24 of those years teaching mostly biology and botany at Talawanda High School. Environmental education has always been an important part of the curriculum in these courses. Ben has a B.S. in Biological Education and an M.A.T. in Biological Science, both from Miami University. Lynne is currently in her 22nd year of teaching, again most of that time teaching for Talawanda Schools. Lynne is an Intervention Specialist (Special Education teacher), and also includes environmental concepts in her lessons. At times she gets a chance to co-teach and actually teaches science lessons. Lynne has a B.S. in Special Education and an M.A.T. in Biological Science, both from Miami University.