Welcome to NHW
June 16 - 23, 2024
|
Natural History Week is a one-week retreat for adults that takes place on beautiful Star Island. We offer many diverse activities so that you can enjoy a relaxing and fulfilling vacation away from the mainland. During the week, you will also have the opportunity to explore and discuss topics that are relevant to our natural world.
|
Peter Alden
Our speaker of the week
|
Peter grew up in Concord, Massachusetts in the shadow of naturalist/philosopher Henry Thoreau. In the 1960's, he attended the University of Arizona, where he served as Vice-President of Tucson Audubon. While in college, Peter led a dozen birding tours throughout Mexico. After spending much of 1968 going around the world birding. he ended up leading birding tours for Mass Audubon. His pioneering tours to Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Australian region along with cruises on the seven seas and private jet excursions for Lindblad Travel, several Harvard Museums, National Geographic, OAT, and others often meant working on 6 or 7 continents a year.
In his spare time, Peter managed to author sixteen books with sales of four million so far. These include his ground-breaking Finding Birds Around the World and a series of eight National Audubon Field Guides to animals and plants of eight US regions including the best-selling Field Guide to New England. Locally, Peter initiated the world's first Bioblitz with Harvard's Dr E.O.Wilson where hundreds of invited specialists from a dozen states gathered at Walden Pond and recorded 3,600 species within five miles in 1998, 2009 and 2019. Variations have now taken place in many states and countries. He spent 4 years in his state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Peter currently lives in Concord, MA and works for the Thoreau Society at the Shop at Walden Pond. |
|
Morning lectures (approx. 1-1/2 hrs.) are meant to be informal, relaxed and and informative. Here are the topics Peter plans to discuss during the week -- |
|
Day 1
Marine Birds, mammals and other sea life in the Gulf of Maine 
|
Day 2
Invasive alien plants of the Northeast 
|
Day 3
Changes in our bird and mammal life from Thoreau's day to today and beyond 
|
|
Day 4
What killed off the megafauna of North America 12,000 - 10,000 Years Ago 
|
Day 5
The High Canadian Artic archipelago today and beyond 
|
Day 6
New names for some of our North American Birds 
|
Wood Island Excursion
Wood Island Lighthouse
|
Our NHW conference is very pleased to have received a grant from the ISA(UU) Conference Grants Committee. With this grant, NHW conferees will be taken on an excursion to Wood Island, Maine. Wood Island is a restored life-saving station at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor. Owned by Kittery, Maine, it was headed for demolition about 10 years ago before a group of volunteers came together to work on restoration. It's been a big story in the area over the past decade.
Wood Island opened to the public for tours since Covid. We will be taken there on Thursday afternoon, leaving Star at 1:00, returning at 4:00. We will have about 1-1/2 hours on the island, where an island volunteer will provide a tour of the island and lighthouse. The dock is easy access and bathrooms are available. We anticipate that Peter Alden will point out any birds or sea creatures that we see along the way. |
