Subject: [Tweeters] Do you like feet?
Date: Oct 13 16:40:36 2014
From: Connie Sidles - constancesidles at gmail.com


Hey tweets, just wanted to let you know about a fun class I am teaching at the Center for Urban Horticulture:

Birds? Feet, scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 10-11:30am. Here?s the link to the class calendar listing: http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/visit/calendar.shtml?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D108032917

When you think about it, all faunal feet are adapted for each species's lifestyles - including ours. I could not hang upside-down by my toes, for example, to gather my morning breakfast as chickadees and bushtits do. How would I drink my coffee?

One way to observe birds in the field is to pay attention to what they are doing, rather than trying to identify their species. It's true that if you can name the species of a bird you see in the wild, and if you have studied your field guides, the name alone will be a shorthand way to call to mind the natural history of that species. But you can also understand at least a part of each bird's natural history by simply observing it as it performs its tasks of daily living. Feet are a big factor that allows birds to survive but also limits how they do so. In some ways, studying one aspect of a bird's anatomical adaptations - like feet - brings us closer to that bird's life. And feet are just plain fun, or funny, as anyone who has studied how cormorants try to maneuver their big feet around the too-small branch of a cottonwood tree can attest.

The early-bird discount rate of $20 is available through October 19. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com