200 enthusiastic birders attended Noah Strycker’s talk at our April 11th annual general meeting at Harvard University’s Geological Lecture Hall in Cambridge. Following refreshments, membership sign-ups and renewals, and palpable energy building as our northeast bird migration season approaches, audience members were regaled with Noah’s engaging slides that accompanied his strange-but-true, often hilarious and always enthralling tales of launching from Antarctic with Chinstrap Penguins, traipsing through high-altitude Andes cloud forests and under Harpy Eagle nest sites, across northern Eurasia and around vast expanse of Australian and New Guinea habitat in search of much-wanted birds for his 2015 World Big Year list.

Delivered with deep knowledge of birds, and noteworthy humility, Noah reminded us that even if our own bird lists are complied by county, state, country and continent, birds do not live by those rules. In fact, they survive because they don’t recognize borders. He responded to audience questions and comments, and autographed copies of his book Birding Without Borders; we wish Noah well as he continues his study of Chinstrap Penguins at SUNY Stony Brook.