As of September 1, it’s been a hundred years since the last Passenger Pigeon died, a sobering thought indeed, when one considers they reportedly “darkened the skies” in migration. On Thursday night, September 3, the South Shore Natural Science Center and the South Shore Bird Club hosted a talk by Wayne Petersen, Mass Audubon’s Director of the Important Bird Areas Program, on extinction and what it means in today’s world.
On Friday night, John Galluzzo, the Science Center’s Director of Education and Camping, joined a distinguished panel at Plimoth Plantation in a discussion following the presentation of Joel Greenberg’s new film From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction. And he brought the centerpiece, the Passenger Pigeon given to William Gould Vinal in 1964 that is now part of the Science Center’s permanent collection, shown here.
On Saturday night, Joel Greenberg, filmmaker and author of A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction, shown here in Vine Hall, on the left, visited the Science Center for a talk on the subject. It was, if nothing else, a weekend of remembrance; at most, it was hopefully a call to the duty of conservation.