AUBURN – The Stanton Bird Club’s inaugural meeting of the 2004-2005 birding season will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, at the High Street Congregational Church.

Dr. Jim Parker of Aerie East Environmental Education Programs and Foundation will present “Will They (Biodiversity and Endangered Species) Survive?,” a comprehensive look at the factors that threaten the health of wildlife and human communities. Biodiversity is one important measure of the health and “naturalness” of a wildlife community and of its ability to contribute to the overall health of a human community.

Parker will use multimedia AV, and live wildlife, including two raptors, to look at the major reasons human activities cause unnaturally fast lost of biodiversity through extinction of species. It highlights several specific cases of threatened or endangered species, but stresses the universal problems.

Parker is a well-known professional ecologist and ecological educator and an authority and lifelong researcher on raptors, especially the Mississippi kite. He has given presentations in ecology, wildlife biology and natural history to more than 400 schools, camps, libraries and other community groups in Maine and elsewhere during the past 18 years.

He also appears in the person of Raptorius, a wildlife wizard, to bring wildlife lore and resources to his people. Living in Farmington with about a dozen captive raptors and a variety of other teaching animals, he also serves the public as a wildlife rehabilitator.

The Stanton Bird Club, founded in 1919, owns and manages the Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary in Lewiston.

The next public program sponsored by the Stanton Bird Club will be Scott Lindsay, wildlife biologist from Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, speaking on the “Natural History of Coyotes” at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6. Meetings, field trips and nature programs are free, unless otherwise noted, and open to the public.

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