Winter visitors: ducks and friends
By Carol Wheeler; Photos by Wayne Colony
November 7, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Lecture
Wayne Colony
Tue, Nov 11, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos, members free

Audubon bird walk
El Charco & Parque Landeta
Bob Graham
Sun, Nov 16, 8am
Instituto Allende departure
Ancha de San Antonio 20
100 pesos, members free 

Have you ever watched a flock of birds migrating overhead and wondered where they were going and why they would undertake such a long journey?

In San Miguel one may well wonder how and why any of these migrating birds find their way to the small presa, or reservoir, at El Charco del Ingenio, our botanical garden. The delicate and beautiful Wilson’s phalarope, for example, migrates each winter from the far north to the high lakes of the Andes, but every year, without fail, a small group of phalarope splash down in the waters of El Charco to rest for a few weeks before resuming their long journey.

Your questions will be answered at an Audubon presentation when Wayne Colony, co-author of the book Wild and Wonderful: Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden “El Charco del Ingenio,” gives a lecture and slide presentation on the migration and habits of the ducks and shorebirds that winter in El Charco.

Every year hundreds of ducks and shorebirds arrive to spend the winter months of November to February. Northern shovelers, pintails, green-winged teal and other ducks join the resident Mexican duck to swim in the waters of the presa. American avocets and the long-legged black-necked stilt arrive to stalk the mudflats, probing for food. Other shorebirds such as the long-billed dowitcher and several species of sandpipers—western, least, stilt and yellowlegs—also often spend several weeks in El Charco. A visitor to the botanical garden during the winter may be lucky enough to see 20 or more wintering species at a time.

Colony also discusses the El Charco wetland habitats—the presa, mudflats and marshes—and why they attract the species that they do. He talks about duck and shorebird behavior, the differences between species (e.g., why some ducks are “divers” and others are “dabblers”) and how to tell a western sandpiper from a least sandpiper based on feeding behavior.

His photographs of ducks and shorebirds from Wild and Wonderful show the various flyers and waders up-close and in beautiful color. Don’t worry if you’re not an expert birder. Colony’s lecture will be fun as well as informational for just about everyone.

As always, admission to the lecture is free for members of Audubon de San Miguel and 50 pesos to others. An annual membership in Audubon is 300 pesos, which can be paid at the door and will admit the new member to this and many other Audubon events throughout the year.

On-the-ground follow-up

The regular monthly Audubon bird walk, led by Bob Graham, our nature expert who has just returned from Canada, will go to El Charco and Parque Landeta, the sites referred to in Colony’s talk, to see the very migratory waterfowl and other seasonal birds he describes.

Inner balance and outer beauty
By Renee Devereaux

Lecture
Change your Thinking, Change your World
Renee Devereaux
Tue, Nov 11, 3pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Donation

Too frequently we take our health for granted and demand that our bodies perform and look a certain way without considering that neglect or abuse thwart our expectations. We ignore the fact that if we are not in a balanced state of mental, spiritual, emotional and physical health, this imbalance will manifest itself physically.

We may hope or pray that illnesses, bad habits or self-destructive ways of thinking will go away, and sometimes we even discipline ourselves into rigidity when we really need to re-program our minds. We must recognize the power of the subconscious over will power. It is within the subconscious that the developmental process can be influenced and changed.

We are responsible for our happiness. The problem lies in the blocks or false assumptions we have made in our lives. Those assumptions become the filters through which we view life and they interfere with our happiness.

Einstein said that it takes intelligence to solve problems and genius to prevent them. I know that we can heal ourselves and thrive, but first we must understand the motivation for our behaviors. We need to know we can make a different choice, and it is easier when we can open our hearts and choose to delve into the reasons for our decisions. 

Renee Devereaux holds an M.S. in health science and nutrition and is a certified clinical hypnotherapist. She is the author of The Ultimate Love-Affair. She can be reached at 044-415-119-2455 or beauty@BeBeautifulNaturally . Her website is www.BeBeautifulNaturally.com. 

Varanasi medical rickshaw

Lecture
Afghanistan to Indonesia
Constance Brereton
Wed, Nov 12, 3–5pm
Sala Quetzal 
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Free

Artist/writer/photographer Constance Brereton presents a talk and slideshow on her five years of traveling and living in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. She focuses on the years in northern India among untouchables and her experiences with Hinduism, Islam, the line of control that separates India and Pakistan and the medical rickshaw she operated in the streets of Varanasi, a 7,000-year-old cultural and religious center. Rev. Brereton’s story is told from the viewpoint of a passionate, single 72-year-old woman traveling in some of the world’s most dangerous places.

A theologian, philosopher and adventurer with a deep interest in world culture, Rev. Brereton has had a home in San Miguel for more than 30 years. Here, she founded one of the first schools for international students, taught at the Instituto Allende and served as the chaplain for Hospital de la Fe and the city of San Miguel for 12 years. She is a mother of four sons and a graduate of the Instituto Allende, the University of California Medical School and Banares Hindu University.

Indigenous influences in today’s San Miguel 
By Arturo Morales Tirado

Lecture
Indigenous influence in San Miguel
Arturo Morales Tirado
Tue, Nov 11, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

Before the Spanish arrived in the Americas, the area that now includes San Miguel de Allende was inhabited by different Mesoamerican ethnic groups. Since at least 2,500 years ago the Chupícuaros, who settled along the Lerma River and its tributaries in the current states of Guanajuato and Michoacán, inhabited the riparian zone of the current Laja River in the vicinity of San Miguel.

In the Mesoamerican classical period, roughly 400 CE, the prototoltecas founded nearly 100 settlements and built pyramids. The first Otomies, who were allied with the Spaniards from 1531 to 1540, arrived later, as did ethnic groups of so-called Chichimecas (pames, copuces and caxcanes).

Spanish domination and Catholicism were unable to stifle the natives’ more than 2,000 years of cultural heritage. Today, we see the remains of those indigenous traditions in the syncretism expressed in architectural monuments, customs and traditions.

We invite you to discover the indigenous presence in San Miguel in its tangible and intangible forms. The lecture will be accompanied by dozens of slides.

A legal, deadly addiction 
By Luis Flores

Lecture
Smoking
Luis Flores
Fri, Nov 14, 5pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Donation

Smoking is recreational drug use that releases nicotine or other active substances through combustion for absorption through the lungs. Tobacco smoking is by far the most popular form and is practiced by a billion people. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium. 

The cultural perception of smoking has varied over time and place—holy and sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, a panacea and deadly health hazard. Only recently, and primarily in industrialized Western countries, has smoking come to be viewed quite negatively. Medical studies have proven that smoking causes lung cancer, heart attacks and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and can lead to birth defects. Due to these health hazards, many countries set high taxes on tobacco and launch anti-smoking campaigns every year to curb smoking. Several countries, states and cities also have imposed smoking bans in public buildings

Tobacco-related diseases are some of the biggest killers in the world and are major causes of premature death in industrialized countries. Some 500,000 deaths per year in the US are attributed to smoking-related diseases 

Many anti-smoking campaigns in mass media stress the harmful long-term effects of smoking. Passive smoking, or secondhand smoking, which affects people in the immediate vicinity of smokers, is a major reason for enforcing smoking bans in offices, bars, pubs and restaurants. The bans discourage smoking by making it more inconvenient and reduce harmful smoke in enclosed public spaces. A common concern among legislators is to discourage smoking among minors and many states have passed laws against selling tobacco to underage customers.

The effects of addiction on society, and the indirect social problems addictions cause, vary considerably between the different substances being smoked, largely because of variations in legislation and narcotics prohibitions around the world. Though nicotine is a highly addictive drug, its effects on cognition are not as intense, noticeable or debilitating as cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines or any of the opiates. Since tobacco is legal, no high-risk black market enriches dealers through exorbitant consumer prices.