In celebration of Earth Week, Alan Powers, professor of English at Bristol Community College, musician, and author of the book BirdTalk, will be the featured speaker in the next installment of the Integrated Warfare Sensor Systems and Software department's Occasional Lecture Series. Powers will be discussing sensor patterns he has observed in local nonmilitary feathered aircraft!

For the last 20 years, Powers, who lives near Cape Cod, has experimented with birdcalls -- mimicking and answering the calls he hears around his country home, in cities, and abroad in France and Italy. In BirdTalk, he celebrates this connection with entertaining allusions to history, literature, travel, linguistics, and other fields. The result is a charming and erudite stroll through an area of interest sometimes lost in the urban din. Powers reveals "birdtalk" by mapping the history of ornithological studies, quoting such bird fanciers as William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, and discussing specific techniques.

Date: Tuesday in Earth Week, April 22, 2003
Time: 12 to 1 p.m.
Place: Nimitz Conference Center

All are welcome! Bring your lunch and come on out to listen to some bird songs!

This event is cosponsored by the Raytheon Employees Wildlife Habitat Committee (REWHC).

Don't miss REWHC'S 4th annual celebration of Earth Day, to be held on the IDS Portsmouth campus on Saturday, April 26th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Activities will include birdhouse building and installation, children's games and crafts, guided trail walks, an eco-treasure hunt, planting of a wildflower meadow, educational presentations, music, refreshments, and more! Family and friends are welcome and must be escorted by a Raytheon employee. For more information, contact Beth Tracy at ext. 4321 or Brenda Bibb at ext. 4816. Be sure to mark your calendars . . . you don't want to miss out on this fun-filled day!