Stow Conservation Trust
Annual Meeting and Potluck
Join us to learn about the SCT year in review, eat delicious food shared by all, and find out more about Massachusetts birds from our speaker, Wayne Petersen.
November 9, 2024
Pompo Community Center
6 pm - 9 pm​​​​
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Please click here to register and let us know what type of dish you'd like to bring.
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Changes in Massachusetts Bird Populations
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Since the arrival of the Pilgrims in the 1600s, bird populations in Massachusetts and the rest of New England have undergone many changes in status, alteration of the landscape, human persecution of species for feathers and food, pesticide contamination, competition with introduced species, natural biological competition among avian species, and range expansions and contractions likely resulting from global climate change and other anthropogenic events. This presentation will discuss some of these phenomena within a southern New England context.​
Wayne Petersen officially retired from Mass Audubon on June 30th as Director of the Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program. His full-time career at Mass Audubon began in 1988 as a Field Ornithologist, however his involvement with the organization began in the 1960s when he was an Interpretive Summer Naturalist and Wildlife Tour Leader at Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary. During his lengthy tenure at Mass Audubon he co-authored Birds of Massachusetts (1993), Birds of New England (2004), co-edited the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 1 and 2 (2003 & 2013) and wrote
a Field Guide to Birds of Massachusetts (2017). Petersen also lectured extensively and led international birding tours for Field Guides and Mass Audubon, and in 2005 he was the recipient of the American Birding Association’s Ludlow Griscom Award for outstanding contributions in regional ornithology.