Saving the Birds: A Lesson in International Relations

International relations aren’t limited to politicians and heads of state. Sometimes they happen closer to home, as with folks in Raleigh at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Science assisting citizens concerned about birds in the area near San Ramon, Nicaragua.

Curtis Smalling, North Carolina Audubon Mountain Program manager, has helped to enhance relations through a partnership between the museum, Audubon, Ecoquest Travel, Guilford College and North Carolina State University, doing habitat use studies of birds at a shade-grown coffee plantation in Nicaragua. While there, he worked with local guides and government representatives involved in conservation and national parks.

At the High Country Audubon (HCA) meeting on Oct. 21, Smalling will talk about banding the birds known as neotropical migrants that winter in the southern hemisphere but live in the High Country during the summer. Smalling will tell how the work he does also has an ecotourism component and what are some of the challenges and special projects.

The meeting will be held at the Watauga Public Library beginning at 6:30 p.m. with meet and greet. There is no charge and the program is open to everyone in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Watauga and Wilkes counties.

Information will be available about field trips in December and January to Lake Mattamuskeet and the Space Coast Birding Festival. The next regular chapter meeting will be Nov. 18, when HCA goes to the movies — in this case, a movie about John James Audubon.

Learn more about High Country Audubon at www.geocities.com/hcaudubon/index.html, where you will find out about the listserve, chapter news and links to other important bird sites. For more information please contact Jesse Pope at (828) 733-4326, or by e-mail at highcountrybirder@yahoo.com.