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Montclair Bird Club Meetings

November 13, 2024, 7:30 pm, at Union Congregational Church, Montclair
Through the Looking Glass: Reflections of a Grateful Birder
by Kevin Karlson
K Karlson Costa hummingbird.jpg

Costa hummingbird, Kevin Karlson

Join us live and in person to celebrate the 105th anniversary of the Montclair Bird Club. There will be food, pictures, games, and good fellowship all around.

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The Montclair Bird Club is proud to welcome Kevin Karlson as the featured speaker at our 105th Anniversary celebration. Kevin’s lighthearted presentation will explore why so many people enjoy the study of birds and the unique camaraderie that characterizes our hobby. Forty-five years of birding has shaped Kevin’s life in so many ways, and this lecture shares his appreciation for that

journey. Come along for a ride through time, with birds, people, and special places the stars of the show.

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Kevin Karlson is an accomplished birder, author, professional tour leader, wildlife photographer, and educator. He is a regular at bird and nature festivals, where he

gives keynote presentations, workshops on bird identification, and photo instruction. Kevin’s books include The Shorebird Guide (2007), Birding by Impression (2015), Birds of Prey (2017, with Pete Dunne), Gulls Simplified (2018, with Pete Dunne), and Bird Families of North America (2021, with Pete Dunne). His Shorebirds of North America: A Natural History and Photographic Celebration, also with Pete Dunne, was released earlier this year.

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Kevin's photography books include The Birds of Cape May and Visions: Earth’s Elements in Bird and Nature Photography. He has also produced a number of photographic identification guides for Quick Reference Publishing. Though he is

officially retired, Kevin continues to lead tours and photo workshops for his company, Jaeger Tours, and for Wildside Nature Tours of Pennsylvania.

January 8, 2025, 7:30 pm, on Zoom 
Audubon Redrawn: New Light on the Artist and the Birds He Painted
by Roberta J.M. Olson
John_James_Audubon_1826.jpg

Photo by Rick Wright

Artist, naturalist, and creator of the celebrated Birds of America, John James Audubon (1785–1851) is regarded as America’s first great watercolorist. Offering a novel exploration of the self-taught Audubon’s artistic journey, “Audubon Redrawn” unveils the influences of earlier and contemporary artists that enabled him to forge his innovative masterpieces. The talk puts in the crosshairs controversies both old and new concerning this legendary figure, who for the first time in history represented all his birds life-size. In the process, the lecture will reveal heretofore unknown secrets about how Audubon infused ornithological illustration with a sense of exhilaration, breathing new life into conventional formulas in dazzling tableaux with an immediacy that make the viewer feel embedded in nature, observing the birds with him. It will also touch on Audubon's transformation into an early advocate for the conservation of birds and the environment.​

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Roberta J. M. Olson is a distinguished art historian and the award-winning author of numerous articles and books, among them Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America (2012 ) and Audubon as Artist: A New Look at The Birds of America (2024). A birder with an interest in the  interconnections between art and science, Olson’s theory, published in Scientific American, that the Star of Bethlehem Giotto painted in the Adoration in Scrovegni Chapel was a portrait of Halley’s Comet in 1301 led to the ESA christening their satellite to that comet “Giotto” and to several books on astronomical phenomena in art. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University, and is Curator of Drawings Emerita at the New-York Historical Society and Professor Emerita of Art History at Wheaton College, in Massachusetts.

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Recent Meetings

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January 2024: A Man, a Plan, a Whole Lotta Birds, by Rick Wright

February 2024: Whimbrels on the Texas Coast, by Sam Wolfe

March 2024: Searching for the Goshawk, by Conor Mark Jameson

April 2024: The Life of the Whooping Crane, by Paityn Bower

May 2024: Birding Colombia's Andes, by Debbie Bifulco

June 2024: Annual Members and Friends Meeting

September 2024: The American Woodcock, by Pete Axelrod

Occtober 2024: Birding the Great Plains, by Tom Gannon

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For the Zoom link to our online meetings, e-mail montclairbirdclub100@gmail.com.

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