Hank Davis

I became passionate about Hummingbirds on a trip to Cuba with the Delaware Nature Society in 2013. Since then, I have traveled to Ecuador 3 times, Costa Rica 2 times, Brazil 4 times, Mexico once, Trinidad & Tobago once, and Peru once. I still have many more countries to go to. I would love to see all 360+ species but realize that will not happen. There are places where one just does not go to see Hummingbirds. So far, my life list is 160 species, of which I have photographed 149. This presentation is primarily a photographic journey of my quest to see Hummingbirds.

Hank Davis is originally from New York City but has lived in the Delaware Valley for 50+ years. Upon his move to the area, he gained an appreciation for nature and open space. Ultimately, this led to a career in horticulture that lasted many years. Since his retirement, he decided to pursue his lifelong passion in photography. While his primary photographs are of horticulture, he has recently included birds, dragonflies and butterflies to his portfolio.
Hank also serves the community by volunteering to take photographs for the Delaware Nature Society, Bucktoe Creek Preserve, Longwood Gardens and the Delaware Center for Horticulture.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Jason Weckstein

Jason Weckstein, Associate Curator of Ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and Associate Professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science, Drexel University will talk about iconic specimens from the Academy of Natural Sciences Ornithology Collection. The Academy of Natural Sciences Ornithology collection is approximately the 6th largest bird collection in the world and is the 2nd largest University based bird collection in the world. The collection is worldwide in scope and houses a large proportion of the described bird species in the world. Jason will touch on some of his favorite specimens in the collection including endangered, extinct, and little known species from around the world.

Jason Weckstein obtained his BS in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan (1993), his MS in Zoology from the University of Minnesota (1997), and his Ph.D. in Zoology from Louisiana State University (2003). For his dissertation, he reconstructed the coevolutionary history and host-parasite associations between toucans and their ectoparasites using DNA sequences. After the Ph.D. he continued studying birds and parasites as a postdoctoral fellow at the Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where he stayed on as a staff scientist until joining the Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Sciences faculty and Academy of Natural Sciences in 2014 as an Associate Professor/Associate Curator.

Weckstein is a fellow of the American Ornithological Society and has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and delivered over 50 presentations at universities and both national and international scientific meetings. He has over 20 years of experience working in natural history museums and has conducted research on birds and their parasites in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Mexico. In addition to teaching, training, and research, Jason's additional interests at the Academy of Natural Sciences include collections building, curation, and public outreach.

Weckstein’s research focuses on three main areas: 1) avian comparative biology and evolutionary history, 2) biodiversity of birds and their parasites, and 3) coevolutionary history of birds and their parasites. He utilizes field collected bird and associated parasite specimens and analyzes their DNA sequence data to reconstruct their ecology and evolutionary history.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.