The Tiadaghton Audubon Society Of Tioga & Potter Counties will host a special program March 20 featuring a presentation by Game Commission Ornithologist Dr. Sean Murphy on How The Fate Of The Florida Sparrow Impacts Pennsylvania.

A 30-year effort has been undersay to improve conditions for the Cape Sable seaside sparrow to contributed to its survival and recovery.

Conservation efforts include annual range-wide population surveys by ground and helicopter, vegetation and hydrologic monitoring, use of prescribed fire to control woody vegetation, controlling wildfires to protect sparrow habitats and banding birds so they can be identified in the future.

In March 2016, Dr. Murphy moved to Williamsport and began working for Conservation InSight, a nonprofit scientific research organization focused on providing solutions to avian conservation issues.

He helped develop a spatially-explicit population estimator for the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow and implemented new survey protocols to improve current data collection methods.

In January of this year, Dr. Murphy was named the state ornithologist to head the Game Commission Wildlife Diversity Division’s Endangered and Nongame Birds Section.

Dr. Murphy is a member of the Wildlife Society, American Ornithological Society, Association of Field Ornithologists, International Wader Study Group, Waterbird Society, and the Pennsylvania Biological Survey-Ornithological Technical Committee.

He is a past President of the Ornithological Societies of North America and currently serves as an elected council member for the Waterbird Society and their Diversity Committee.

The program will be held at the Wellsboro High School Administration Building, 227 Nichols Street in Wellsboro starting at 7:00 p.m. A business meeting of Tiadaghton Audubon will start at 6:00 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public.

For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Tiadaghton Audubon Society Of Tioga & Potter Counties Blog.  Questions about this event should be direct to Sean or Robin Minnick at 570-948-9052.

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[Posted: March 14, 2019]

3/18/2019