Writers in the Wild: Author Series

Join Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in partnership with Litchfield Community Center for our first book talk in the Writers in the Wild Author Series!

We are excited to introduce our first featured author of the Writers in the Wild series – Roger Pasquier highlighting his book “Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep”

Everybody enjoys watching birds during the daytime, but what do they do at night, when they seem to disappear?  Birds need sleep as much as we do, and they have evolved unique sleep habits to match their intensely energetic lifestyle.  Instead of long stretches of obliviousness, they sleep in short bouts of several seconds or a few minutes, waking up to look around for danger, and then going back to sleep.  To increase their vigilance, birds can sleep shutting off only half their brain and one eye at a time, leaving them able to respond instantly to any alarm.  The social habits of sleeping birds are also distinctive.  Most are solitary, some sleep in pairs or families, while others gain advantages of warmth, safety, and even social needs like finding a mate, by joining in flocks, not to mention guidance on where to get breakfast the next day.     
Roger Pasquier will discuss the evolution and benefits of sleep, focusing on how birds find shelter, keep warm, and stay alert, and recent discoveries that some birds can spend weeks and months in flight, in some cases with actual sleep.  Human impacts like artificial light and noise as well as climate change, however, are changing how and where birds can get a good night’s rest.

Pasquier is a lifelong birder and conservationist, previously working at BirdLife International, World Wildlife Fund-US, Environmental Defense Fund and the National Audubon Society. Roger was also the founder and president of the Friends of the Peruvian Rainforest, an organization leading efforts to help protect millions of acres across the Amazon rainforest. Having written multiple books on birds coupled with his background in conservation, we are thrilled to invite you to hear from this ornithologist!

Pre-registration highly suggested
 

This book is available at Oliver Wolcott Library (OWL) to read prior to the event.
Books available for purchase at event.