Within the cycle of annual lectures on conservation biology, initiated by Tour du Valat in order to highlight the work on waterbirds conservation of Heinz Hafner, we have the pleasure to invite you to the 2023 lecture, on 9th November at 6.00 pm, Jean-Paul Taris conference room, at the Tour du Valat as well as online (the link of the webinar will be sent after the registration).
The Heinz Hafner 2023 conference is being organised in partnership with the Pro Pandion association, to mark the 100th anniversary of Luc Hoffmann’s birth.
Alan Poole, will present:
Learning from Ospreys
Please register before 2 November 2023 by following this link [1].
Abstract: The Osprey is a fish-eating bird of prey with a broad, near global distribution, and a dedicated human following in both the professional and citizen science communities. The past half century has given us an unparalleled wealth of information on this charismatic bird, covering a broad range of topics: contaminant impacts, population dynamics, migration, foraging ecology, breeding behavior, and conservation – to name the most prominent. It seems an appropriate time to step back and assess what we have learned from these many decades of Osprey research.
This talk will highlight key findings from European and North American Osprey populations, on both their breeding and wintering grounds, with an emphasis on conservation and on what this bird can tell us about the widely varied habitats that support it. In addition, no look at Ospreys today can fail to spotlight the human connections — how people have nurtured the extraordinary resurgence in Osprey numbers seen in many parts of its range. In an era when many of earth’s natural systems are unraveling, and birds in particular are struggling to maintain numbers, the Osprey “revival” is a phenomenon deserving a closer look.
An ornithologist with training at Princeton, Yale, and Woods Hole, Alan Poole [2] (74 yr old) has had a long career in the worlds of research and publishing. He is an Associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, and the recently retired editor of the Birds of North America (BNA) – the 18 volume, 18,000 page life history series now online at Cornell. In addition to editing, Alan has spent over 40 years in studies of coastal birds, particularly Ospreys, and completed his 2nd book on that species (Ospreys: the revival of a global raptor; Johns Hopkins University Press) in 2019. His new book about the Resplendent Quetzal, a Neotropical cloud forest beauty, will be published by Cornell/Zona Tropical in October 2023.
Throughout his career Alan has been involved in education and the natural sciences, looking for creative ways to make biological stories come alive for as broad an audience as possible. He lives along the coast of southeastern Massachusetts (South Dartmouth), and spends 2-3 months each winter at the Wilson Botanical Garden (Organization for Tropical Studies) in the highlands of southern Costa Rica.