Alan is Professor Emeritus (Physiology & Neurobiology) at UConn. His research included work on feather pigments described here and the molecular structure and evolution of feathers. He served as Editor of The Auk, and was visiting research scientist at several US Universities and in Australia. He writes “Books on Birds” for the CTWarbler.

A Supremely Bad Idea                            Luke Dempsey

It began with a weekend house; then weekend trips. Then the occasional meeting rearranged in favor of a morning in Central Park, just while the spring migration was on. Before Luke Dempsey knew it, he had spiraled down into full-on birding mania - finding himself riding along with two like-minded maniacs in a series of disreputable rental cars and even nastier motel rooms, charging madly around the country in search of its rarest and most beautiful birds. A Supremely Bad Idea is the story of that search, and those birds, and those maniacs, and that country, and (to a much lesser extent) those rental cars. In Texas, the three obsessives go in search of the deeply endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler, which lives on the side of a hill near a waterfall; in Michigan, they see the pretty-much-extinct Kirtland's Warbler, which insists on short pine trees for nesting and lots of "quiet, please"; in Arizona, they see the very private Elegant Trogon after a very public fight with a birding guide. Along the way, Dempsey narrates an amazing sequence of encounters with nature and humanity, including a man building a 40-foot ark in his Seattle backyard; a beautiful woman who shows him how to kill 4,000 Cowbirds a year; a coyote (and his human smuggler) on the Rio Grande; and everywhere, these incandescent birds flitting across the range of his binoculars, and his heart.

With the casual erudition of a Bill Bryson and the comic timing of a British David Sedaris, Dempsey demonstrates why so many millions of birders care so much about birds - and why, perhaps, the rest of us should, too.
Luke Dempsey is the Editorial Director for Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. A graduate of Oxford University, he moved to the United States in 1995, since when he's held a number of editorial positions in the publishing industry. He is the proud father of twin girls, both of whom love birds, too, and a proud member of the modern beat combo The Railbangers. This is his first book.

Did you finally catch up with Pacific Loon last fall in Middlebury? Sometimes
the answer to a tricky identification is a cooperative bird. Mark Szantyr and Greg Hanisek, who have both served as secretary of the Avian Records Committee of Connecticut, will lead a panel and audience participation discussion on the art and science of documenting the identification of rarities. The emphasis will be on birds that pose identification problems in Connecticut. Mystery photos on view at the venue will serve as a focus of discussion.

Early Registration: $15.00 per person (pre-pay only)
Must be received by March 8, 2010
[Registration at the door: $20.00]

Buffet lunch: $14.00 per person (pre-pay only)

Please make check payable to COA and send with completed registration form to:
Larry Reiter, 32 West Mystic Ave, Mystic, and CT 06355

Click here to download a printable schedule and registration form in PDF format>>