San-Cap Audubon presents ‘You, The Birds & Birding’
Longtime Sanibel winter residents and “Americas First Couple of Birding,” Don and Lillian Stokes, will present their newest and most elaborate work, “The Stokes Field Guide To The Birds of North America,” on Thursday, Feb. 17 at the Sanibel Community House.
In a program entitled “You, The Birds & Birding,” the Stokes will introduce their amazing achievement and relate how they designed it for you, the birder of today. Their presentation, beginning at 7:30 p.m., will include many of Lillian’s photographs from the book as well as techniques on how to fast-forward your bird identification skills.
Six years in the making with over 3,400 color photos of 854 species in one 816-page volume (which includes a CD containing 600 songs and calls of 150 common birds), it is the most comprehensive photographic field guide ever published.
According to the National Audubon Society “The new Stokes guide….should put to rest photos versus illustrations…the key to any guide, photographic or illustrated, is in the quality of the images and in having enough of them to show the birds in their diagnostic plumages and postures. The new Stokes Field Guide …fulfills this requirement in spades…(it) is a strong candidate for the title of best field guide ever”.
Signed copies of this amazing and affordable guide will be available for purchase after the lecture for $24.99. A portion of each sale will be donated to San-Cap Audubon Society by the provider, MacIntosh Books and Paper of Sanibel.
Don and Lillian have been prolific writers as well as consultants and educators in the birding industry for over 30 years. Their 30 different nature books have sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and include “Stokes Beginners Guide to Shore Birds,” a “must-have” on Sanibel.
In 2001, they moved to southern New Hampshire and have since created a 48-acre bird sanctuary called Bobolink Farm, which has attracted 192 species of birds to date. This remarkable habitat features rolling meadows with nesting meadowlarks, bobolinks, bluebirds, and tree swallows, a lake with herons and ducks, woodlands filled with warblers, and large perennial borders that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
This is the seventh of eight lectures held in 2011 on Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at the Sanibel Community House, located at 2173 Periwinkle Way. As always, all are welcome to attend. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and parking is available at the Community House as well as across Periwinkle Way in the Schoolhouse Theater parking area. A $5 donation is appreciated, with proceeds being used to promote conservation on Sanibel and in Florida.
For additional information, call Elaine Jacobson at 395-1878.