This Friday, November 6th at 8PM, Don Messersmith a true Master Birder
who will cover his 65 years of birding on every continent and in 117
countries.
This will be an amazing birding travelogue with Don highlighting
noteworthy birds he has seen on each continent and island nation using
his own slides.

WHERE: Arlington Echo Environmental Education Center.
http://www.arlingtonecho.org/
Directions: http://www.arlingtonecho.org/directions/directions.html

SIXTY YEARS FINDING AND STUDYING BIRDS:  MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST.
Don Messersmith, Master Birder, Naturalist, and Professor Emeritus
(Ret.), University of Maryland.

Don’s presentation will cover his 65 years of birding on every
continent and in 117 countries, amassing a life list of 3,907 species,
including 604 North American species. Don will highlight noteworthy
birds he has seen on each continent or island nation using his own
slides.  He began keeping records in 1946 after three years of birding
as a Boy Scout. You will be treated to an amazing birding travelogue
covering unique birds from all over planet Earth. Follow Don on his
birding adventures to: Australia (8 trips, 589 species); China, where
he led the first American birding tour and now has led 14 trips and
recorded 83 species; and to such exotic spots as Tonga, Iceland,
Greenland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Egypt, Kenya, Israel, Papua New Guinea,
Malaysia, the Seychelles, and Antarctica.  Don has degrees from the
University of Toledo, Univ. of Michigan and a Ph. D. in Entomology
from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.  He has taught ornithology and
other ecology course for more than 48 years, including course/lectures
in China, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Cyprus, and Britain.  In his spare
time, he organized and has led worldwide nature tours for 57 years,
including as owner/operator of the former Crowder Nature Tours which
Don and his wife, Sherry, continued as their own company, called World
Nature Tours.  They organized and sent tour groups to every continent
except Antarctica for more than 20 years.  For 17 weeks in 1972, Don
led birding tours across the Pacific Ocean, to Australia, New Guinea,
and New Zealand and saw over 1500 birds. He has taught adult evening
courses about birds and insects for the Audubon Naturalist Society
Field Studies Program in conjunction with the U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture Graduate School for 45 years and has won numerous awards
for his teaching and conservation accomplishments.  Don is a Fellow of
the Explorer’s Club and is the Historian for the Maryland
Ornithological Society.

We hope you will make plans to enjoy this very special presentation.
Don will share stories of his incredible birding adventures around the
globe and you'll get to see some of the many fascinating birds that he
has observed.

See you Friday!

Dan Haas
-sent on behalf of the Anne Arundel Bird Club and Gerald Winegrad