Indoor Program – William Burt: Rare and Elusive Birds of North America

Late on a June night, in the middle of a vast Spartina marsh in eastern Maryland, William Burt achieved his longtime goal to photograph the Black Rail, a mythic, red-eyed bird so rare and deftly elusive in the fine grass of its meadow home that few ornithologists had ever even seen it. But the trip was just the first of many photo quests made by this renowned naturalist, photographer and writer, and the first phase of a mission that would occupy him for some 16 years and take him to marshes, bogs, swamps, and other wild lands all over North America. His mission: To photograph all 20 of the most elusive “ghost’ birds” on the continent, and to photograph them as never before, close up and undisturbed in their wild and secret haunts. He spent weeks at a time in the field, using his own hand-built equipment and often visiting sites repeatedly, year after year in certain cases—sometimes in the middle of the night—to get the picture he was after. In tonight’s presentation, we journey with William to the remote places he visited in search of the rails, bitterns, nightjars, and other “mystery birds” birders long to see.