Posting for Steve Pretl:

The Montgomery Bird Club will meet this Wednesday night, April 21.  As usual, refreshments begin at 7:30, and the meeting starts at 8:00.

Our speaker this month is Doug Forsell of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  Doug will talk on the "Wildlife and History of Five Remote Tropical Island Refuges."

Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuges are our most remote refuges lying within 100 miles of the equator in the Central Pacific Ocean. Johnston Atoll is about 700 miles southwest of Honolulu and Rose Atoll is a tiny atoll at the eastern end of the Samoan Islands. Doug was refuge manager of the five refuges for four years in the 1980's and is especially interested in the population changes of the two million nesting seabirds since the 1920's. These birds have managed to survive many hazards from man including guano mining, rats, cats, invasive plants, and contaminants.  The talk will not only cover the natural history of the terrestrial wildlife, but also its colorful marine life.

I'm looking forward to this presentation, and hope to see you there. All are welcome.

Anna Urciolo
Rockville, MD