How Birds Fly: Photographs and Stories

Barbara Jensen, president of SJI Audubon invites you to this lecture on bird flight this weekend…

Peter Cavanagh photo

Join us for “How Birds Fly: Photographs and Stories” with Peter Cavanagh. 

Saturday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m., Brickworks (150 Nichols St.) in Friday Harbor
Sunday, Feb. 7, 1:30 p.m., Orcas Center (917 Mt. Baker Road) in Eastsound

Birds fly through our lives every day, their flight might not seem extraordinary – until you recognize that it is a marvel of mechanics that evolved over millions of years. With just over 100 years of powered flight, humans are newcomers to the sky, but we have been helped to get there by studying bird flight.

Peter at Iceberg Point on Lopez – Photo by Arthur Glauberman

Peter Cavanagh , NASA researcher, University of Washington professor, and photographer, will explain the intricacies of bird flight and how our observation of it has influenced aircraft design.

Peter’s lecture will be illustrated by his spectacular photographs, and will include the evolution of flight, the basic physics and anatomy of flight, and stories about the flight of unusual birds and the people who have studied them.

Professor Cavanagh studies biomechanics – the application of engineering principles to the biology of movement.  This background, together with his training as an instrument-rated private pilot, and a deep interest in bird conservation has attracted him to the study of bird flight. This year his travels in search of interesting birds will take him to Japan, Peru, Norway, England and Wales, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands.

Cavanagh also recently organized an exhibition on Bird Flight at the Seattle Museum of Flight.  He has written 5 books on topics varying from Bone Loss during Long Duration Space Flight to the Biomechanics of Running – and he is currently at work on a book with the same title as the upcoming lecture – How Birds Fly.

Thank you to our co-sponsors – Orcas Currents and the Port of Orcas.

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