Virtual General Meeting Rich Cimino Topic: Birds of the Western Andes Mountains of Colombia Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting Nov. 12th, 7:00pm This meeting will be broadcast online via Zoom Register to receive login information. New to Zoom? Check out all you need to...
Status, Ecology, and Conservation of the Declining Purple Martin in the Northern California
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting October 11th, 7:00pm
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Title: Dan Airola, Status, Ecology, and Conservation of the Declining Purple Martin in the Northern California
Description: Purple martins have been in long-term decline in California. Since the 1990s, Dan Airola has been studying and working to conserve the last Central Valley population, which nests in elevated freeways and overpasses in Sacramento. He also has conducted status surveys throughout Northern California. His talk presents these study results and describes conservation measures that have been implemented and are needed to protect and recover the species.
Biography: Dan Airola is a Wildlife Biologist and Ornithologist who has worked for over 40 years on bird conservation issues in Northern California. His recent research has addressed status, ecology, migration, and conservation of at-risk species, including the Tricolored Blackbird, Swainson’s Hawk, Yellow-billed Magpie, fire-adapted forest species, and migrant songbirds. Dan also serves the Central Valley Bird Club as a Director, Conservation Chair, and editor of the journal Central Valley Birds.
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting November 8th, 7:00pm
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Title: Homer Hansen, “Fall Raptors of Fresno County”
Description:
“Fall Raptors of Fresno County”
As winter settles in our neck of the woods, various species of raptors migrate into our locality, both increasing the numbers of common summer residents and adding a few overwintering species as well. This presentation will provide comparisons of the natural history, behavior, structure, and field marks for several species, including Golden and Bald Eagles, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, Ferruginous, and Rough-legged Hawk, and Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawk, and American Kestrel, Merlin, and Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.
Homer Hansen
BIO:
Homer Hansen grew up in Willcox, Arizona surrounded by Sandhill Cranes in winter and Cassin’s Sparrows in summer. Homer has a passion for sharing bird watching with others and is a regular field trip leader for several festivals and has served as chairman of the Wings Over Willcox Birding & Nature Festival for nearly 20 years. Homer loves working with youths and co-founded the Sulphur Springs Valley Young Birders Club and the associated Arizona Young Birder’s Camp, non-profits dedicated to educating youths about birds. He also instructs workshops on sparrows, raptors, flycatchers, warblers, birding by ear, and bird ecology, including: the Lifelong Learning courses for the Tucson Audubon Society, the Southwestern Sparrows IFO for the American Birding Association, and educational workshops for the Western Field Ornithologists (WFO) conferences. Homer is a life member of the WFO, Cooper Ornithological Society (COS), and Wilson Ornithological Society (WOS), and just completed two terms with the WFO board as chairman of the Student Programs Committee.
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting December 13th, 7:00pm
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Title: Robert Groos, Wild Turkeys, up close and personal
Description: Wild Turkeys, up close and personal
Wild Turkeys roam the foothills of Coarsegold. In early spring, an annual pageant unfolds: traveling leks of hopeful males seeking to mate with willing females. It is a wondrous exposition of biological desire, and much more. I’ve had the good fortune to observe and capture it all with photos and video. In this presentation, you will witness the phenomena of Wild Turkey leks, courtship displays, male to male combat, copulation, predation upon nests, and more.
Don’t be a turkey and miss out on this opportunity to experience the thrill of seeing these magnificent birds at their wild best.
Biography:
Robert received a PhD in French from the University of Wisconsin, became a university professor, but eventually left academia to pursue a career in computer technology consulting.
He began photographing birds in preparation for a safari in Botswana. What better way to learn how to use a camera than photographing birds, he reasoned. Birds eventually became his favorite photographic subject. “I’ve never met a bird I didn’t want to photograph,” he admits.
His photograph of a Cedar Waxwing was selected to appear in a special Audubon Photography Awards gallery of “our favorite female bird shots 2021.”
Choosing to be a bird photographer necessitated becoming an avid birder, and that pursuit led to storytelling about his experiences observing birds.
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting January 10th, 7:00pm
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Julie Brown
Monitoring migratory raptors in the Americas
Description:
I will be speaking about the Hawk Migration Association of North America, our current programs and the work we do to support the raptor migration monitoring network. I’ll talk about HawkCount.org, the largest citizen science database in the world and how these data are being used to determine raptor population trends across the continent.
Biography:
Julie Brown is the Raptor Migration and Programs Director at HMANA since 2008. Prior to her work at HMANA, she migrated throughout the US and tropics working as field biologist primarily with raptors, focusing on human impact studies, migration research and behavioral studies. Julie received her BS in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Maine and received her MS in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England where she studied Peregrine Falcon migration in Costa Rica. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband who she met hawkwatching and her two bird loving children.
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting February 14th, 7:00pm
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Larry Parmeter
How the Birds Taught Humanity to Fly
Description:
Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have wanted to fly like the birds. Although many studied the secret of avian flight during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, it was not until the Industrial Revolution that the technological tools for humanity to fly became available. By the mid and late 1800s, spurred on by the science of bird flight, dozens of people, and the Wright Brothers were not the first, were attempting to master human flight. This culminated in the early 20th century with pioneering aviators on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Pacific as well, joining the birds in the air.
Biography:
Larry is a retired high school English teacher who currently teaches for the Osher Adult Continuing Education Program at Fresno State. He has been a member of Fresno Audubon for over 30 years, and was its president during the 1990s. He currently leads field trips for both Audubon and the San Joaquin River Parkway, and is also involved in the Parkway’s environmental education program for elementary school students. He has also had a longtime interest in the space program and aviation, which led him to tonight’s presentation.
Join Robert Groos on safari to Zambia. No need to fly all the way to the other side of the world. On this photo and video expedition, you will experience the birds and other wildlife (lions, leopards, elephants, zebra, antelope, of course) of Zambia as if you were sitting by my side in the safari jeep. Enjoy an incredible travel experience, informative as well as entertaining, without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Come along with me. I want you by my side on March 14, 2023
Biography
Robert received a PhD in French from the University of Wisconsin, became a university professor, but eventually left academia to pursue a career in computer technology consulting.
He began photographing birds in preparation for a safari in Botswana. What better way to learn how to use a camera than photographing birds, he reasoned. Birds eventually became his favorite photographic subject. “I’ve never met a bird I didn’t want to photograph,” he admits.
His photograph of a Cedar Waxwing was selected to appear in a special Audubon Photography Awards gallery of “our favorite female bird shots 2021.”
Choosing to be a bird photographer necessitated becoming an avid birder, and that pursuit led to storytelling about his experiences observing birds.
Harmonizing Bird Conservation with Food Production in Farming Landscapes
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting April 11th, 7:00pm
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Daniel S Karp: Harmonizing Bird Conservation with Food Production in Farming Landscapes
Description:
A critical challenge for this century is transitioning towards sustainable farming systems that simultaneously produce food and conserve wildlife. Yet conservation scientists and practitioners have traditionally fixated on protected areas and overlooked opportunities for conserving wildlife alongside us in working landscapes. Daniel uses ecological research to develop strategies for co-managing agriculture for bird conservation, crop production, and food-safety outcomes, both in the tropics and here in California. For this talk, Daniel will first discuss how climate change and habitat conversion are affecting tropical bird communities, and how shifts in farming practices may mitigate their combined impacts. Then, Daniel will shift his focus to California agricultural systems, where birds play multiple roles on farms, not only consuming crops and spreading foodborne diseases, but also consuming crop pests. Daniel will outline his lab’s work striving to find ways to manage California birds and take advantage of the benefits they can provide farmers, while minimizing harms to food production.
Biography:
Daniel Karp is an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at UC Davis. Daniel completed his Ph.D. in 2013 and undergraduate studies in 2009 at Stanford University’s Department of Biology. Following his graduate studies, Daniel became an inaugural NatureNet postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the Nature Conservancy. He then received a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at The University of British Colombia, before beginning his position at UC Davis in 2017.
Register for Fresno Audubon General Meeting May 9th, 7:00pm
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Tom Hahn, University of California, Davis: Natural History of Western Finches
Description:
Finches are, in many respects, the archetype of what people think of when they hear the word “bird.” Yet concealed in that “typical bird” form lies amazing variation. Among our numerous western finches – goldfinches, siskins, crossbills, grosbeaks, and so forth – we have: birds that are about as likely to breed in January when the snow lies deep on the ground as they are in July, birds that perfectly match the calls of their mates, birds that pack their songs with precise imitations of the sounds of other species, birds that seldom breed in the same place two years running, birds that we can only tell apart reliably by their flight calls, birds that can breed “in the streaked plumage of youth,” birds who can nest far from their food sources because they possess hefty food-transport pouches, and birds whose mandible tips don’t even line up. This presentation will be a tour of the striking natural history, behavior, morphology, and physiology of our western finches, and highlight ways that field ornithologists and bird watchers can add to our growing knowledge about these fascinating birds.
Bio:
Tom Hahn is a professor of biology at the University of California, Davis. He has been studying western Cardueline finches since the late 1980s, when he began working on reproductive schedules of red crossbills for his doctoral research. Since then, he and his students have spent many hours in the field studying the reproductive schedules, migratory habits, vocal behavior, habitat associations and other aspects of the natural history of red crossbills, white-winged crossbills, evening grosbeaks, pine siskins, house finches, Cassin’s finches, purple finches, American goldfinches, lesser goldfinches, pine grosbeaks, common redpolls and gray-crowned rosy-finches.
