August Meeting

Wed 14 August 2019 07:30pm

Jon Coleman - The Breeding Biology of Black Swans in Australia: A comparison between Queensland and the ACT
Peter Marsack - Painting for the Australian Bird Guide

This month there will be two presentations of roughly equal lengths.

The first presentation will be by Jon Coleman, who has recently moved to Canberra, on: “The Breeding Biology of Black Swans in Australia: A comparison between Queensland and the ACT”.

Jon will present some of the results of his work investigating their breeding biology of Black Swans and will explain how he is now studying the Black Swans of the ACT to perform a comparative study between the two populations. He will discuss their movements, when they first pair and breed, and the different breeding strategies used to maximise their productivity. Of the 6 species of swan in the world, the Black Swan is one of the least studied, and the findings to date will be discussed in relation to northern hemisphere species which Jon has also been involved in studying.

The second presentation will be by well-known wildlife illustrator Peter Marsack on: “Painting for the Australian Bird Guide”.

Peter will talk about the process involved in producing the original artwork for The Australian Bird Guide: three artists painting over 4,700 images. Why did this seem like such a good idea, how were the images painted, what challenges had to be overcome, and why did it all take so long? In the course of his talk he’ll touch on the way the changing expectations of birders have driven changes in the nature and scope of field guides.

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