Bring your friends and family. A short business meeting will precede the presentation.  Light refreshments will be served.

Ornithologist Chris Rimmer will speak about his on-going research concerning the Bicknell’s Thrush.  Chris is director of the newly formed Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) in Norwich, VT.  Having constituted the Conservation Biology Department at VINS for more than 20 years, Chris and his group will continue their pioneering avian conservation research from the mountains of New England to the forests of Haiti and the grasslands of Bolivia.  Over the past 30 years, Chris' own ornithological field experiences have taken him from the high arctic Canadian tundra to the salt marshes of James Bay, the rain forests of Peru, and to islands off Antarctica.  The Bicknell’s Thrush is one of North America’s most rare and vulnerable songbirds.  Nesting only in mountaintop forests of the Northeast and wintering primarily on the island of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), this bird faces numerous threats to its long-term survival.

Since 1992, Chris has led efforts to conserve Bicknell’s Thrush and the habitats on which it depends.  Chris will discuss this fascinating and rare songbird, VCE’s efforts to study it in New England and the Caribbean, and how Bicknell’s Thrush represents a vital conservation link across international boundaries.