FIELD ORNITHOLOGY: BIOSM 3740/ZOOL 510
dates: MAY 31 – JUNE 14, 2010
credit hours: 4 semester credits
total cost: $4,812 (includes room, board and tuition)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchwalters/sets/72157619496343137/
Prerequisite: One full year of college level biology; background
in ornithology or vertebrate biology is recommended, but not required.
Leave the classroom behind, get outside, and immerse yourself in the amazing world of birds. This field-based course uses the diverse and abundant birds of the Isles of Shoals as your primary “lab material” as you gain an understanding of avian ecology. Live among nesting eiders, Herring Gulls, and Great Black-backed Gulls. Travel to neighboring islands to see tern and cormorant nesting colonies (and see some baby seals along the way). Scan the horizon for diving gannets and soaring shearwaters and fulmars while on a whale watch off the Islands. Explore the differences between island and mainland birds during a field trip to the coast. Course topics include avian diversity, anatomy, ecology, physiology, and behavior. Field techniques include field identification, bird banding, and various census methods.
Faculty:
Dr. David Bonter (pictured on left above), Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
Dr. Eilse Ferree, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
Read D. Bonter's article about his time spent on Appledore teaching in summer 2007.
He says, "There's no better way to build class unity than to head into a colony of irritated Herring and Great Black-backed gulls."
