Meetings of the Washington Crossing Audubon Society are held on the third Monday of each month from September to May. At 7:30 PM, join us for a refreshment social; at 8:00, our program begins. Programs are held in Stainton Hall on the campus of the Pennington School. The campus is on Delaware Avenue between Route 31 and Main Street in Pennington; enter from Delaware Avenue between the brick lamp posts (across the street from tennis courts), proceed a short distance to an intersection, and turn right into the parking area. Parking is free. The walkway to Stainton Hall is evident at the end of the parking lot. (View Detailed Map)

There is more to the Birds and the Bees than what your mom told you! Join us in exploring the bizarre and fascinating courting and mating behaviors of our native wildlife.

Jenn Rogers is the County Naturalist for the Mercer County Park Commission and has experienced first-hand some of the steamy secrets of wildlife sex.

Tyler Christensen grew up studying insects and birds, and over the years he has seen some of the stranger ways in which insects and other animals procreate.

Jenn was the recipient last summer of a Washington Crossing Audubon scholarship to a one-week program for educators at the Hog Island Audubon Center in Muscongus Bay, Maine. Before her formal presentation, she has promised to regale her audience with a brief account of her experiences.

NOTE: Meeting on second Monday

How easy it is to take for granted the simple footpaths we follow as we hike. A good trail may seem as if it was just always there. Alan Hershey will demystify how new trails come into being--the necessary conditions for new trails, route design, the digging and moving of big stones, the bridge-building, and the all-important maintenance that follows.

Alan Hershey is Chair of the Board of Trustees of D&R Greenway Land Trust, and New Jersey Trails Association whose website (www.njtrails.org) provides guides and maps for trails throughout central New Jersey. For seven years he has been organizing and leading volunteer crews to build and improve trails in our region. This persistent work has created a growing cadre of skilled trail-builders from teenagers to octogenarians. Those attending this presentation will have ample opportunity to be welcomed to their ranks.

From spring ephemerals to the final blooms of autumn—Rachel Mackow’s presentation features her photographs of the native flowering plants of the Sourland ridge. She will focus on wildflowers that thrive in the Sourland’s mature forests. Rachel will discuss plant life cycles, pollinators, medicinal and traditional uses, and native plant conservation.

A photographer, writer and naturalist, Rachel Mackow resides on the Sourland Mountain ridge with her husband and son. Her photography has been exhibited and published internationally and locally, with exhibits at the Queens Museum, Phillip’s Mill, Gallery 14, Princeton Public Library, the University of Pennsylvania and the National Library in Havana, Cuba. Her hand-tinted photographs were published in Harper’s Magazine. She is a Land Steward for Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space.

In her illustrated talk, Magee will emphasize the ecology, breeding strategies, and conservation of birds of the Sourland Mountains, concentrating on breeding neo-tropical migrants, which are species of high conservation concern.

Since her retirement from EAG Labs where she was a senior scientist, she has been doing breeding studies of Neo-tropical migrants at two sites in the Sourland mountains, Baldpate Mountain and Northern Stony Brook Reserve (McBurney Woods). She also volunteers at Hannah Suthers’ Featherbed Lane bird banding station. She lives in Hopewell Township with her husband Charles and has two grown sons and two grandchildren.

NOTE: Meeting on second Monday

Jim Springer is the Vice-President of the North American Butterfly Association and responsible for several of its websites including www.naba.org. Jim has a strong interest in many aspects of natural history but especially that of butterflies and other insects in both the U.S. as well as other countries. His recent retirement as a research chemist will allow him to pursue this interest even more extensively.

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