Dexter library to offer program on endangered birds

DEXTER — One third of America’s birds have vanished over the past 50 years. Almost no species has been spared, not the common sparrow, nor the black crow, nor the tiny hummingbird.

Attendees will explore some of the reasons for this disturbing decline at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 19 at the Abbott Memorial Library. Colleen Grover of Corinna will offer a program on our endangered bird species. She will examine possible reasons for their declining numbers and what we can do to ensure these birds survive and thrive.

Grover has been an avid bird watcher since 1970 when her high school Latin teacher brought her to see one of only 40 bald eagles still left in the state of Maine due to the prevalent use of the insecticide DDT.  Since then 48 years of life on a central Maine farm has provided ample opportunity for her to study and care for both birds and animals. She has contributed to data collection for the Maine Bird Atlas, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project, Audubon’s Annual Loon Count, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and the annual US Fish and Wildlife American Woodcock Survey. Grover currently volunteers with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Kestrel Project, overseeing nesting boxes for American Kestrels.

For more information, please call 207-924-7292.