Hi all --

I am forwarding this message as I am sure many of you will want to attend this lecture by Dr. Bruce Beehler, who made headines last year with the remarkable discoveries in West Papua. Bruce is of course also a local birder and organizer of the annual Warbler Marathon, as well as an occasional vistor to the Rock Creek DC patch.

Unfortunately I could not also forward the color photos accompanying Gerald Winegrad's email to me -- very spectacular!

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville, MD
-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: "Gerald Winegrad" <>

Subject: DISCOVERY OF A LOST WORLD: A FASCINATING TRIP TO AN UNDISCOVERED GARDEN OF EDEN
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 16:51:59 +0000
> 
Dear fellow Birders:  We have a fantastic presentation set March 15 at 8:00 p.m. 
> for the Annual AA Bird Club Richard E. Heise, Jr. Presentation at Quiet Waters 
> Park Great Blue Heron Room.  It is more fascinating then the Ivory-billed 
> Woodpecker talk last year.  I hope you will print color copies of the attached 
> flyer and distribute them/post them at work, school, public libraries, and other 
> public places.  Also, please post this to web sites, and send to list serves 
> (birding and otherwise) that you use.   Thank you.  Gerald W. Winegrad   

> DISCOVERY OF A LOST WORLD :A FASCINATING TRIP TO AN UNDISCOVERED GARDEN OF EDEN
> 
> You, your family and friends won't want to miss naturalist Dr. Bruce Beehler's 
> amazing presentation of the incredible discoveries in the remote, mist-shrouded 
> jungles of New Guinea's Foja Mountains. Come and see this vivid account of what 
> few humans have seen. New species of birds, frogs, butterflies, palm trees, and 
> flowers are discovered, tame tree kangaroos and echidnas that you can pick-up 
> and hold, a long-lost species of bird-of-paradise rediscovered! This inspiring 
> adventure story made headlines in 500 newspapers around the world and was 
> covered on Nightline, CNN, NBC Nightly News, BBC, and PBS's Lehrer's NewsHour 
> 
> You can attend Bruce Beehler's vivid accounting and presentation of photographic 
> footage of this journey of discovery on Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. at 
> Quiet Waters Park's Great Blue Heron Room in Annapolis. Dr. Beehler will present 
> his amazing story of adventure documented in the press worldwide of his 
> DISCOVERY OF A LOST WORLD: A FASCINATING TRIP TO AN UNDISCOVERED GARDEN OF EDEN. 
> 
> Dr. Beehler, Vice President of Conservation International's Melanesia Center for 
> Biodiversity Conservation, led an expedition of 12 researchers from the U.S., 
> Indonesia, Holland, and Australia to Indonesia's remote, mist-shrouded Foja 
> Mountains located just north of the vast Mamberamo Basin of north-western 
> Indonesian New Guinea in Papua province. This pristine, remote area covers more 
> than two million acres of old growth tropical forest with no trails, no sign of 
> civilization, no sign of even local communities ever having been there. The 
> expedition to one of the most remote, pristine jungles in Asia found 20 new 
> species of frogs, 4 butterflies, 5 new palms, and new species of flowers. These 
> new discoveries included what may be the largest rhododendron flower on record, 
> almost six inches across and a new frog species was a tiny microhylid frog, no 
> more than 1/2 inch long. 
> 
> The first bird seen at their remote jungle camp was a new species: a Wattled 
> Smoky Honeyeater with a bright orange facepatch, the first new bird discovered 
> on New Guinea since 1939. The team spotted 15 of these birds. This new species 
> has received a scientific name for Dr. Beehler's wife, Carol. 
> 
> The team captured the first photos of a male Berlepsch's Six-Wired Bird of 
> Paradise, named for the wiry strands that extend from its head in place of a 
> crest. The amazed scientists watched as a male Berlepsch's Bird of Paradise 
> performed a mating dance for an attending female in the field camp, the first 
> time a live male of the species had been observed by Western scientists, and 
> this proved that the Foja Mountains was the species' true home, after several 
> earlier expeditions failed to find its home. The scientists also took the first 
> photos of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird displaying its bachelor pad to females as 
> part of a mating ritual. 
> 
> Large mammals that have been hunted to near extinction elsewhere were located in 
> abundance, and such rare species as Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying 
> mammal, and the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo, an arboreal jungle-dweller new for 
> Indonesia and previously thought to have been hunted to near extinction. Both 
> species showed no fear of humans and could be picked up. 
> 
> Bruce Beehler first conceived of this incredible journey of discovery in 1987 
> when on an earlier expedition to New Guinea he flew over the Foja Mountains and 
> noticed a patch of flat, open ground in the jungle suitable for a helicopter 
> landing. Nineteen years in the conception and planning phase, the rented 
> missionary helicopter dropped Bruce and his team on to the boggy patch of ground 
> that would serve as their exploratory base camp for two weeks of discovery. Dr. 
> Beehler hopes to return this year with a crew from 60 Minutes to continue the 
> explorations and discoveries in the Foja Mountains and document new species on 
> film. 
> 
> Dr. Bruce Beehler, a native Marylander who resides in Montgomery County, is an 
> ornithologist, birdwatcher, and tropical ecologist, and an expert on the 
> ornithology of the Southwest Pacific and South Asia. After conducting 
> pre-doctoral and doctoral fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, he worked for 10 years 
> at the National Museum of Natural History, followed by stints at the Wildlife 
> Conservation Society, U.S. Department of State, and Counterpart International. 
> Today he oversees a field program that conducts conservation initiatives in 
> Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Papua-- Indonesia. 
> Dr. Beehler is author or co-author of several natural history books: Birds of 
> New Guinea (Princeton); The Birds of Paradise (Oxford); A Naturalist in New 
> Guinea (Texas); and A Biodiversity Assessment for Papua New Guinea (Biodiversity 
> Support Program).
> 
>  A $5 DONATION IS REQUESTED AT THE DOOR