Seth is speaking for the Brooklyn Bird Club June 23rd and as well leading the June 27th Dragonfly/odonata walk in Staten Island
(
http://www.brooklynbirdclub.org/meetings.htm;
http://www.brooklynbirdclub.org/trips.htm )
Here's his good news regarding his fundraising drive to study urban ponds ( source Facebook ) and a mentioned to Brooklyn birders....
BIG NEWS, WE DID IT! Thanks to the support of 162 Backers and a generous grant from CUNY, I have raised the $17,000 needed to carry out this summer's research plan on experiment.com! Through everyone's support we will now be able to pay not 2, but 3 undergrad research assistants, purchase field supplies to collect and process water samples, a new multimeter to take water quality readings and some additional supplies needed for my on-going capture-mark-recapture study of local turtles and most importantly pay for the sequencing of our environmental DNA samples!
A special thank you to all the people who have "shared" my many posts over since April, especially, HB West, Sarah Yuster, and Marilyn Zayfert (for some reason, FB isn't letting me tag her) who helped with the PR and spreading the word! An additional BIG THANK YOU to Sandra Paci, Peter D. and membership of the Brooklyn Bird Count who raised money for my effort during their annual Bird-A-Thon in Prospect Park.
I will be publishing a "Lab Note" on the website in the next few days with a longer explanation!
On a special note, I have decided to dedicate this summer's research toBob McAndrew who passed on this spring. Bob was the father of my long-time friend Patrick (and husband to Linda). Bob was the first Backer to make a donation within 2 minutes of my first post promoting this project! Although we had not seen each other since the late-90's, Bob and I continued to maintain a friendship through Facebook! Bob's comments and suggestions on my posting always made me think a little deeper, sometimes reevaluate what I had said or teaching me something I'd never thought of before! My only regret is I had never taken him up on his many offers to come and visit his WONDERFULLY maintained backyard, which he had landscaped in the fashion of an old English garden. This summer's for Bob! We'll keep his memory alive with every turtle we handle and pond sample we take!
