A Birding Tour of Morocco - Cayuga Bird Club 2023-02
Channel: Cayuga Bird Club
Date: 2023-02-17

A Birding Tour of Morocco.
Ken Rosenberg, Diane Morton & Ken Kemphues.

Presented at Cayuga Bird Club meeting, Monday, February 13, 2022.

The three of us, along with seven other participants, experienced a memorable birding tour of Morocco last spring. Our exploration went from the city of Marrakech to the High Atlas Mountains, Middle Atlas, plains, Sahara Desert, and the Atlantic coast, each area with birds specialized to their unique habitats. In addition to North African endemic species such as the Northern Bald Ibis, Pharaoh Eagle-Owl, and Cream-colored Courser, we found migrant songbirds, over a dozen species of larks, and several delightful Sandgrouse species. Join us as we share with you our experience in this beautiful country — birds, vibrant culture, and varied landscapes.

About the Speakers: Ken Rosenberg is a lifelong birder and attended Cornell University as an undergraduate. After receiving his PhD from Louisiana State University, he returned to Cornell. He has recently retired from his joint position as an Senior Scientist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Bird Conservancy, where his focus was on the conservation status and distribution of bird populations, particularly migratory birds. He is the lead author of the 2019 paper published in Science with the staggering report that nearly 3 billion North American birds have been lost since 1970.

Ken Kemphues and Diane Morton are active members of the Cayuga Bird Club; Ken is the Cayuga Bird Club’s treasurer and Diane is a past president and current director of the club. They are both retired from Cornell’s Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics where Ken was a Professor and Diane a Senior Research Associate. They met as post-docs while at the University of Colorado, and have been married for 38 years. They both enjoy leading bird club field trips and traveling to see birds.