Make Some Fine Feathered Friends While Bird-Watching This May At Rutgers University In Newark

Free Early-Morning Bird Walks

(NEWARK, N.J., April 21, 2010)

– Airplanes aren’t the only air traffic crowding the skies over Newark; more than 100 species of nature’s frequent fliers also wing it overhead.

Dr. Claus Holzapfel, an ecologist with the Department of Biological Sciences, is once again leading free bird walks at Rutgers University in Newark this May. His mission: to seek out the more than 100 species of wild birds who call Newark their transient home, perhaps even rare ones, “such as the red-tailed hawk, a large raptor which hunts our local squirrels and pigeons,” according to Holzapfel.

The professor will lead the campus walks every Wednesday morning in May, beginning May 5, from 7:45 a.m. – 8:15 a.m., through May 26. The walks are open to the public, as well as faculty, students and staff; the only equipment needed is a pair of binoculars; some will be available for loan.

Bird-watchers will meet on the Norman Samuels Plaza at the entrance to Boyden Hall, 195 University Ave. (Norman Samuels Plaza is located between University Avenue on the west, Martin Luther King Boulevard on the east, Warren Street on the south and Bleeker Street on the north; for further assistance go to http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/maps/.)

Exactly what brings wild winged creatures to this urban center?

Although the campus is located in an urban environment where there aren’t many trees, explains Holzapfel, the campus itself offers many green spots covered with trees, bushes and shrubs , so the campus stands out to watchful birds. “They see the green spots, and they zoom in and land here… birds are sneaking around the trees and shrubs in desperate search of food… that allows a good chance of seeing them here.”

For more information on the bird-watching walks, please contact Holzapfel at 973/353-5385 or visit the website: http://newarkbioweb.rutgers.edu/Holzapfel%20Lab/Main%20Pages/BirdsOnCampus/Birds%20on%20Campus.htm