Ospreyers,

Please join us!

THE BIRDS OF CHINA.  The Anne Arundel Bird Club hosts China bird expert Dr. Donald H. Messersmith on Friday, December 1, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. at Arlington Echo Environmental Education Center, Millersville, MD.  

Find out why China is becoming known as a great birding destination from Dr. Messersmith, a retired University of Maryland Professor Emeritus and an avid birder. China ranks fifth in the number of bird species (about 1,250) recorded in a single country, with about 100 of these birds endemic to China and found nowhere else. Don Messersmith has traveled to every continent and about 117 countries leading birding tours beginning in 1953, and he will share his experiences birding in China using his own slides from organizing and leading 13 trips to China. He was part of the first birdwatching tour to go China in 1982. 

Don has also done research for the International Crane Foundation in China, which hosts 8 of the world's 16 species of cranes, including the endangered Siberian, Red-crowned, White-necked, Black-necked and Hooded Cranes. In addition to Don's research on Red-crowned Cranes in Northeast China and Black-necked Cranes in Southern China, he has worked as an Environmental Consultant for the World Bank, and one spring taught an Ornithology course in Nanjing. His wife's family first went to China in 1854 as missionary doctors and teachers, and his wife, was born in Soochow, a city near Shanghai. This long connection with the Chinese people has opened many doors for Don and permitted him to be the first American to go into areas formerly closed to Westerners. It is in some of these areas that the best birds were found. An important migration route from Siberia passes down the East coast of China and habitats vary from oceanic to very high mountains, from arid deserts to tropical rain forests. Several Families of birds reach their peak of species diversity in China such as the well-known pheasants and lesser known laughing-thrushes, Eurasian redstarts, buntings, Old World warblers, and Oriental flycatchers. The rare Oriental White Stork and a bird once listed as extinct in China-the Crested Ibis--can now be found in remote areas.

Sue Ricciardi
For Gerald Winegrad, AABC Program Chair