THE GALAPAGOS AT TECH TEA TIME
At the first Tech Tea Time of the year at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October
18, in the MTU Memorial Union Alumni Lounge, Art Weaver will talk about
"The Gal‡pagos, Darwin's Enchanted Isles." Charles Darwin, the nineteenth
century scientist, drew the world's attention to this incredible living
laboratory when he traveled there in 1845. The talk will be illustrated
by some of the many slides Art took when he visited the islands a year
ago. Tea Time is free and open to the public.
Art and his wife made what he calls "the trip of a lifetime" to the Gal‡pagos
islands, "a somewhat tarnished paradise of immense fascination to geologists,
biologists, birders, scuba divers, and ordinary 'Gee Whiz' tourists."
With a dozen other "sports" and a super-expert leader, they spent nearly
two weeks traveling among the islands in a small yacht, landing on ten
of them. Even in so short a time, they were introduced to the endemic
giant tortoises and "Darwin's Finches," as well as many of the other birds
and animals found there.
Arriving in the Copper Country in 1958 to teach in the former engineering
mechanics department at Michigan Tech, Weaver stayed, convinced that there
was no better place in the world to live, raise a family, and teach. Having
retired a good many years ago, he travels widely, but always returns.
Thirty years ago, he became a birder in spite of the common male inheritance
of red-green colorblindness. Concentrating on local birds, he wrote The
Birds of Michigan's Copper Country as an aid to local beginners in the
sport of birding.
Tech Tea Time is coordinated by the University Cultural Enrichment Department.
For further information call 487-2844.
