Author and naturalist Mike Bottini has announced his first winter season field course - "Nature in Winter".
"Nature in Winter" will cover the unique physical stresses winter places on our native flora and fauna and some of the interesting adaptations they have evolved to cope with it. Providing Mother Nature cooperates, participants will learn about some of the properties of "nature's long underwear," or snow, and take a close look at the lives of some of our four-legged fauna by following their tracks. One field trip will combine a hike through one of Mike's favorite forests, the Point Woods, with a visit to the Montauk Seal Haulout site to glimpse this winter visitor.
"Nature in Winter" is scheduled for Friday, February 4, 11, and 18 from 9 am - noon. The course fees are $20 per class; $50 for the course.
Mike Bottini is the author of the best-selling "Trail Guide to the South Fork" and is a veteran naturalist and former field officer for the Group for the South Fork. He is also an award-winning columnist and a former adjunct professor at Southampton College. For the last few years Mike has led a highly popular series of field naturalist courses. "Nature in Winter" is his latest offering.
Previous students highly recommend Mike's courses:
"You have no idea what you've been missing all around you until Mike explains it," says an amateur birder. "It's like he turned the light on in a dark room."
"Mike is really good at communicating his knowledge -- and his understanding of how everything's connected to everything else," offers a computer technician.
"Mike's course will turn you into a nature nut," observes a local hiker. "I never understood the richness of our environment before."
Class sites for "Nature in Winter" are:
2/4: Stony Hill
2/11: The south end of Barcelona Neck near Staudinger's Pond
2/18: Point Woods
No special equipment is needed other than warm boots.
For more information visit www.MikeBottini.com or call Mike at 631-267-5228.
