Local Author and Biologist Marcy Cottrell Houle to Speak at Bird Alliance of Oregon April 3

PORTLAND, OREGON —Portland writer and wildlife biologist Marcy Cottrell Houle will speak at the Bird Alliance of Oregon on Thursday, April 3 to celebrate the reissue of her classic work, “Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock.” The event begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Houle will be available to sign books after her presentation.

Originally published in 1991, the new edition of “Wings for My Flight” comes from the University of New Mexico Press. Told with humor and insight, Houle’s book recounts her years as a determined young field biologist studying some of Colorado’s last surviving peregrine falcons in the 1970s. Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben calls it, “An absorbing account of field biology — and also of field anthropology, of the struggle to convince humans that other species count too.”

In the nearly 40 years since Houle began her research, the peregrine has made an amazing comeback. The updated edition of “Wings for My Flight” includes new material describing the conservation issues involved in the survival of the peregrine and the species’ triumphant recovery.

Finnegan, Bird Alliance of Oregon’s resident peregrine falcon, will be on hand in the Interpretive Center prior to Houle’s talk, from 6-7 p.m. His handler will talk about how Finnegan came to be one of Bird Alliance of Oregon’s education birds, and the role of Bird Alliance of Oregon in the protection of peregrines in the Pacific Northwest.