KELSEYVILLE – The Redbud Audubon Society will host Dr. Floyd Hayes at the upcoming Thursday, Feb. 18, meeting at Kelseyville High School, Room 203, 5480 Main St., Kelseyville, starting at 7 p.m.

Dr. Hayes will present a program on the birds and wildlife of the Galapagos Islands.

Hayes is an associate professor at Pacific Union College and an avid birder. His PowerPoint presentation will focus on his research experience in the Galapagos Islands and studies of the unusual birds and wildlife there.

The Galapagos Islands comprise an archipelago of volcanic islands that straddle the equator approximately 900 kilometers west of the South American continent in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The marine environments of the islands are influenced by two major oceanic currents: the westward-flowing South Equatorial Current at the surface and the eastward-flowing Equatorial Undercurrent below the surface.

The interactions of these currents with the El Nino/Southern Oscillation result in an oscillating climate affecting both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, Dr. Hayes explains.

Hayes is a widely published ornithologist whose research on birds has especially focused on the birds of South America and the Caribbean. Before his teaching appointment at Pacific Union College, he worked as a wildlife biologist in the US Virgin Islands.

The public is warmly encouraged to attend this event.

For more information about the Redbud Audubon Society, go to www.redbudaudubon.org .