Mount Diablo Bird Alliance will meet Thursday, February 6 in the Camellia Room at the Gardens at Heather Farm, 1540 Marchbanks Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598.

6:30 PM Doors Open
7:00 PM Announcements
7:15 PM Refreshments and Raffle
7:30 PM Main Program: Birds and Art in Central Europe
*as a conservation organization we encourage you to bring your own mug for coffee or tea

Jill Hedgecock will share photos from her birding adventures, museum visits, and more during her travels through Amsterdam, Germany, Prague, and Salsburg. From taking a cable car to the highest mountain in Germany and seeing the alpine cough, to stumbling upon a stunningly beautiful nonnative mandarin duck, Central Europe was full of birding surprises. Jill will also show how birds have found their way into many art forms in Europe. She will provide background information on bird-inspired paintings such as Rembrandt’s 1639 Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern and his 1635 Abduction of Ganymede painting, from her visit to the Old Master’s Picture Gallery in Dresden, Germany, and the parrot mosaic she saw in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.

Jill Hedgecock, who has spoken to MDBA on topics from rhino conservation, microplastics, and falconry in Scotland, returns to share more of her international travels with the Mount Diablo Bird Alliance. She has a M.S. degree in Environmental Management and is the author of two novels inspired by her love of rhinos. She previously served as the International Conservation Coordinator for the club back in the early 1990s and was a long-term leader of the Black Diamond Mine Christmas Count circle.

Parrot Mosaic, photo by Jill Hedgecock