Bird expert to speak at Paul Smith's College

PAUL SMITHS, NY (10/08/2013)(readMedia)-- Birds fly thousands of miles each year during their migration period. Ever wonder how they muster up all that energy? An expert in bird ecology will be on hand at Paul Smith's College this Friday, Oct. 18, to give a talk on that very subject.

Jacob Straub, an assistant professor of ecology at SUNY Plattsburgh, will speak at 10:10 a.m. in the Freer Auditorium as a part of the Fisheries and Wildlife Science Seminar Series at Paul Smith's College.

Straub holds a doctorate from Mississippi State University and a master's from Ohio State University. Both degrees focus on how food abundance affects waterfowl in key regions in North America.

Straub served on the scientific committee for the Ecology and Conservation of North American Waterfowl symposium in Memphis, Tenn., this past January. He's also on the planning committee for the North American Duck Symposium, which will be held at the University of Delaware in 2015.

The fall semester's last seminar at Paul Smith's College will be held on Friday, Nov. 15, when Glenn Johnson, the chair of the department of biology at SUNY Potsdam, will give a talk titled "Conservation of an Endangered Species: Recovery Planning for Spruce Grouse at the Edge of its Range."

All seminars, which are free and open to the public, take place from 10:10-11 a.m. in the Freer Auditorium.

For the past six years, Paul Smith's College has hosted a different professional fisheries and wildlife biologist each month as part of the series, which is sponsored by the fisheries and wildlife science program.

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