Peru is the home of almost 20% of the world's species of birds (approx.1800 of 9800) -- and more than 60% have been recorded from SE Peru, comprising the Departments of Cusco and Madre de Dios.  Large gamebirds such as curassows, guans, and trumpeters still can be seen, as well as several species of showy macaws and parrots, not to mention 13 species of monkeys, Brazilian Tapir, Giant Otters, and even "El Tigre", the magnificent Jaguar.

Blue-necked Tanager

Join Peter Bono as he retraces his recent (July-August 2008) trip to Southeast Peru.   On the whole 24-day trip, he saw or heard 100 tyrant-flycatchers and 50+ each of hummingbirds, furnarids, antbirds, and tanagers.  

Peter Bono is a computer software developer from Yarmouth Port. He started birding at about age 8, but his passionate avocation is travel and world birding, which he started at about age 45.  He manages to take enough photographs to share his experience with other birders and occasionally tolerant family and friends. On this trip, Peter hit his long-sought 5000 milestone with a Peruvian Piedtail (a hummingbird) and ended the trip at 5109 species.

Cape Cod Bay has long been known as a trap for marine mammals and more recently has received considerable attention as a trap for sea turtles in the late fall. Although less publicized and less well known among the general public, the bay is an equally effective ­ though generally less lethal ­ trap for seabirds. This phenomenon occurs most frequently during and immediately following northeasterly storms when large numbers of shearwaters, storm-petrels, gannets, phalaropes, jaegers, and other pelagic species are blown shoreward and become “trapped” by the bay’s confusing geography. Blair will describe these avian spectacles, offer an historical perspective, outline the circumstances that produce these events, and pose some questions that remain unanswered.

Blair Nikula, a native Cape Codder and life-long birder, is a former regional editor for American Birds (now North American Birds), a past-president of the Cape Cod Bird Club, a former associate member of the Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program Advisory Committee, and currently serves as a member of the Mass Avian Records Committee.  Blair has also been studying and photographing dragonflies and damselflies for about 15 years.  He co-authored the Stokes’ Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies, and A Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Massachusetts. He is currently working on a revision of The Birds of Cape Cod.  His incredible photos and vast knowledge make his programs a not-to-be-missed event!

The CCBC is proud to present one of the highlights of the year and you can be one of the stars!  This night belongs to you, our loyal members!

Silent Auction - over 100 books plus gear, artwork, and other items will be available for bids.  Proceeds will be donated to the Birder’s Exchange.

Door Prizes - This could be your lucky night!

Bake Sale - Baked goods for holiday eating or treating!

Digital Slide Show - a fantastic presentation of members’ birding and nature photos.

Members Table - A table will be set up for members or guests to display any bird-related information or items they might choose.

Refreshments - juices, cookies and other goodies, a feature of every club meeting!

Don’t miss this annual extravaganza!

Digital Slide Show

Club member Peter Bono has again volunteered to assist in the digital slide portion of this year’s Members’ Night.  Generally speaking, you may email your images to Peter (pbono@prba.com) in any format as an attachment. He’ll resize and rename them as needed and organize them into folders. Don’t worry if you are not “computer savvy”. Get a family member or friend to help email the images or put them on a CD and hand them to Peter at a meeting.

For computer-savvy members interested in making Peter’s task a bit easier, some guidelines follow:

Contact Peter Bono ASAP if you intend to participate even if you are not yet prepared to email the zip file containing your images. This will give Peter an idea of how many presenters we will have.

We ask that members submit 10-15 images.

1. Send up to 15 digital images in jpg format in a zip file attachment to Peter Bono (pbono@prba.com).
2. Crop (if necessary) and resize the original camera image to 1024 x 
   768 resolution.
3. Name each file as follows: "XXX_YYYYYYYY.jpg" where XXX are your 
   initials and YYYYYYYY is the species name. Use underscore character 
   (_) for spaces in the bird’s name.  For example: PRB_Black-fronted_Piping-guan.jpg.
4. Send your images by November 30th to allow Peter enough time to put the whole slide show together.
5. For more info, please call Peter at 508-375-9421.