Feb 21, 2006

Contact: Gordon Ovenshine 724-738-4854; gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu

WATCH SPRING UNFOLD THROUGH BIRD WALKS AT SRU

GRADUATE STUDENT TO LEAD FIELD TRIPS; PUBLIC WELCOME

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Josh Lawrey, a parks and recreation/environmental education graduate student at Slippery Rock University, will lead a series of weekly bird walks for beginners this spring at Moraine State Park and other premier birding spots.

Free and open to the public, participants will learn identification techniques, migration routes and nesting habits of species. Lawrey, from Redding, will also direct a hawk-watching trip to Braddock Bay, N.Y. on April 1, as well as two other Saturday events.

 Walks will be held every Monday at 4 p.m. and every Wednesday at 8 a.m. through May. Participants will meet at SRU’s Robert A. Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education and Research on Harmony Road, the sponsor. Call 724-738-4050 or show up at the prescribed time. The walks are one hour.

           “The walks are beginner oriented, geared specifically to spark the interest of those who might not have much experience birding and yet, still be fun and educational for those who bird regularly,” Lawrey said. “Learning something about the many different bird types helps us come to understand the interrelationships that birds and other creatures have with their particular habitats and the role they play in maintaining the quality of the world in which we live.”

Saturday events include:

•          March 25: Waterfowl at Moraine State Park, from 8 a.m. to noon;

•          April 1:  Hawk watching at Braddock Bay, N.Y., from 6 a.m. to early evening;

•           May 6:  Color and song of spring migrants, from 7 a.m. to noon, on campus.

Lawrey is in his final semester as a graduate student in the park and resource management/environmental education program. He has spent several years working in the field of environmental education, recreation and resource management.

He spent the better part of the last four years working for nonprofit organizations such as the Sharon Audubon Center and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center as an environmental educator and also, he worked as a free-lance hawk counter for HawkWatch International, Braddock Bay Raptor Research, and the Cape May Bird Observatory.

#PN