Thursday afternoons for guest lectures at the Education Center. Click here for schedule.

“Ding” Darling lecture series kicks off with butterflies

The eagerly awaited eight-week “Ding” Darling Bookstore Lecture Series kicks off Jan. 28, 2010, with Tom Allen, a biologist for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and wildlife author, who will speak about “Butterflies Around Us.”

Other highlights this season include Theodore Cross, whose Waterbirds photographic study has won notice in the New York Times and on NPR’s All Things Considered; and an evening lecture at BIG ARTS starring presidential biographer Douglas Brinkley. The season’s complete schedule is listed below.

For more information, call 472-1100 ext. 241 or log on to www.dingdarlingsociety.org.

Jan. 28 - Tom Allen - Butterflies Around Us
Feb. 4 – Mark “Bird” Westall – Exploring the Backwaters of “Ding”
Feb. 11 – Theodore Cross – Waterbirds: Portraits and Anecdotes from Birding Adventures*
Feb. 18 – Gary Schmelz & Glen Stacell - A Guide to Native Wildflowers of Southwest Florida*
Feb. 25 – Tom Allen – Owls of Florida
March 3 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON – Douglas Brinkley – Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America* Program is at BIG ARTS, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $20 at BIG ARTS box office
March 11 – Charles Sobczak – Living Sanibel: A Nature Guide to Sanibel & Captiva Islands*
March 18 – Rick Bonney, Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Birds of the Florida Gulf Coast: What Does the Future Hold?

All lectures begin at 1 p.m. in the Refuge Education Center Auditorium, and admission is free with the exception of the March 4 special evening program.

Book signings follow all of the starred (*) lectures. Seating for the 1 p.m. lectures is limited and available on a first-come basis.