Burke Museum Field Trip (12/4/04) Highlights

There were 15 people for this field trip where we observed many local and foreign dead birds. Rob Faucett, the Burke Museum’s Collections Manager, gave an excellent presentation on the Burke Museum Ornithology Departtment activities.

They have the largest collection of Russian birds as a result of a working agreement with Russia, largest collection of seabirds as a result of collections from oil spills and fishing bycatches, and largest collection of spread wings of birds which are used to detect molting patterns. Many of their research projects are resource driven, i.e., money is provided to do a specific program.

We were able to view many of the bird collections. Rob has been on a number of the foreign projects and knew the names of all the birds and was answered all of our questions. The Burke collection dates back to the late 1800s. We were fascinated to learn that they some very rare and now extinct birds in the collection. This includes three Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and a Passenger Pigeon.