In this illustrated lecture, naturalist and ornithologist, Bruce Beehler, will recount his hundred-day-long field trip in 2015 following the spring migration of songbirds from the coast of southeastern Texas up the Mississippi and from there into the boreal forests of northern Ontario—breeding ground of many of the wood warblers. Along the way, he spent time in tiny rural communities from southern Louisiana and Mississippi through the Heartland and to the northern limit of roads in Ontario, land of the Cree and Ojibwe. Beehler’s informal goal was to spend time with all thirty-seven eastern wood warblers in their breeding habitat. In pursuing this objective, he saw a lot of deeply rural North America. His presentation touches on wildlife, nature conservation, migration research, American history, and rural culture.
Bruce Beehler is a Research Associate in the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and is focused on research and writing about nature and natural history.