From Parlor and Plate to Microscopes and Art

From Parlor and Plate to Microscopes and Art
Moe Flannery and Sharon Beals
San Francisco: Thursday, August 18—7 p.m. refreshments, 7:30 program (free for GGAS members, $5 nonmembers)


The California Academy of Sciences (CAS) Ornithology and Mammalogy Collection currently houses more than 11,000 egg and nest specimens. Moe Flannery, collections manager, will discuss the history of egg and nest collecting, from the era when eggs and nests graced the parlors of the fashionable hobbyist and the menus of restaurants, to their modern-day importance as repositories of DNA and information about changes in the environment. Sharon Beals will present the photographs of nests and eggs she made at CAS while working on Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them. She will also share what she learned as a citizen scientist about the habits of the nest builders and some of the conservation issues facing these birds today.

Moe Flannery received her master of sciences in ecology and systematic biology from San Francisco State University, studying the cospeciation between quill mites and their bird hosts. Sharon Beals is an ardent environmentalist, photographer, and author who lives in San Francisco. For the book, she also photographed at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in Camarillo and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley.

Golden Gate Audubon Speaker programs are free for members and small fee of $5.00 for non-members. Join us at 7:00 p.m. for a half-hour of socializing and refreshments.