Two Excellent Events

If you want to learn more about interesting animals such as the Eastern Box Turtle, consider attending the upcoming Wildlife Diversity Conference. This conference is major in every way, attracting around 900 attendees, and it always sports an interesting roster of speakers and subjects. Topics covered this year include the aforementioned box turtle, Ohio's breeding birds, ticks, the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Program, bats, and much more.

The Wildlife Diversity Conference rapidly approaches - March 13, and it's in Columbus at the Aladdin Shriner's Complex at 3850 Stelzer Road. Sorry, I should have been out there with a plug for this some time ago. Anyway, you can register online, or just show up - walk-ins are quite welcome. All of the details and registration info are RIGHT HERE.

Everyone loves singing insects such as the "counting katydid", above, which is more appropriately known as the Broad-winged Bush Katydid. If you want to learn more about Nature's most ancient animal soundmakers, you'll definitely want to attend the March 11 meeting of the Columbus Natural History Society. Lisa Rainsong will give a fascinating presentation entitled Connecting People to Nature's First Musicians. Lisa is an authority on the Orthoptera: crickets, coneheads, katydids, trigs and the rest of the six-legged songsters. Her outstanding blog is HERE. Admission is free, and all of the details are RIGHT HERE.