Monthly Programs

Since 2015 Fyke's monthly speaker costs have been funded by a generous grant from the Winifred M. and George P. Pitkin Foundation

Sept. 22, 2023, Friday - 8:00 p.m. via Zoom

What’s Growing Inside The Celery Farm’s Deer Exclosure? Mike Lefebvre

Mike Lefebvre

After four years of the deer exclosure protecting a patch of woods inside the 107-acre Celery Farm, it’s time to take a look at the flora growing there in the absence of deer grazing. trout lily

Deer enclosures are used as best practices in forest management when white-tailed deer browsing becomes an issue. The deer enclosure helps to protect, establish and increase regeneration of native plants.

Plant identification expert and Fyke Nature Publicity Chair Mike Lefebvre will take us inside the deer exclosure for a look at the forest understory.

Oct. 27, 2023, Friday - 8:00 p.m. via Zoom

Cowbirds: Villainous Mobsters or Falsely Maligned Native Species? Sarah Winnicki

Sarah Winnicki

Brown-headed cowbirds are notorious for their breeding system called "brood parasitism.” They lay their eggs in the nests of hundreds of other bird species, forcing those birds to feed their young. cowbird egss in nest cowbird eggs They've been painted as dastardly villains, but are they? Biologist, PhD candidate, photographer and birder Sarah Winnicki walks us through the biology of cowbirds, paying close attention to their research on the ways they interact with their host species in their native range in Kansas.