The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Sexual Selection at Far Ings NNR? A call to Birders.

By Dr Carl Smith.

I am pleased to advertise the above presentation will be held at the New Visitor Centre at Far Ings NNR on Sunday February 5th 2012, starting at 1930.

This presentation is organised by the Far Ings Bird Group and is also open to anyone who may be interested in attending.

Dr Carl Smith is specialist in the subject of sexual selection in birds and will be adapting his subject matter to the birds of Far Ings.

I would be grateful if anyone interested in attending would inform me in advance (although not critical) as we will need to organise seating and coffee/tea etc.

Thankyou

Andy

Just a reminder to keep the above presentation visible on this page. I hope that it will attract a few people from outside the boundaries of far Ings. I have had a chat with his partner and even though his expertise in his subject is more about birds in general I do believe that he will adapt it to our LWT Reserve. She did inform me that he has won an award in the recent past, in the USA, for his delivery of a presentation on this subject and even beat off the challenges of Harvard University's representative.

I hope that your curiosity is aroused, like mine, and that his audience will be deserved of his promise.

Dear Andy,
I have just become a member and am a beginner in bird watching. I would like to attend the presentation at Far Ings as I am interested to learn as much as I can. Would I be eligible to come?
Thank-you,
Angela

Of course Angela, it is an open house. Come along and enjoy the talk. It will be very informal and you will have chance to relax and enjoy meeting a few people who also enjoy your interest.

see you there.

I have a little more information on Dr Carl Smith's talk this Sunday (Far Ings VC 1930).

"Carl recently completed his PhD in genetics at University College London where he also studied for his BSc in Biology. His work focused on using yeast to develop our understanding of sexual signals during courtship and exploring the ecology of wild yeast to further develop it as an organism of scientific interest. Furthering this he investigated the evolution and benefits of sex as opposed to asexual reproduction- organisms haven't always existed as having a male and female! Throughout his academic career he has presented his work not only in the UK but also in Germany and the US at international conferences where he has won awards for his original research and accessible presentations. However today is the first time he will be talking to a group of birding enthusiasts. Today's talk will give us a better understanding of how evolution works, and give us deeper insight into the courtship behaviour of birds. He's hoping that if we make it through the talk awake, it'll inspire us to take a bit of a closer look at the birds we see through our binoculars, understand a bit more about whats going on, and help contribute to our collective knowledge!

The talk is still on tonight, hope the weather does not put anyone off coming.