Archives: Speakers

Featuring Scott Weidensaul 

Thursday, February 16 —  6 p.m. via Zoom

Scientists continue to make astounding discoveries about the navigational and physiological feats that enable migratory birds to cross immense oceans or fly above the highest mountains, go weeks without sleep or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch. Scott Weidensaul, author of A World on the Wing(2021), takes us around the globe — with researchers in the lab probing the limits of what migrating birds can do, to the shores of the Yellow Sea in China, the remote mountains of northeastern India where tribal villages saved the greatest gathering of falcons on the planet, and the Mediterranean, where activists and police are battling bird poachers — to learn how people are fighting to understand and save the world’s great bird migrations.

About Our Presenter

Scott Weidensaul’s field research focuses on bird migration. He is a co-director of Project Owlnet, a collaborative effort among over 100 banding and research stations across North America studying owl migration. Weidensaul co-founded Project SNOWstorm, which uses cutting-edge tracking technology to study Snowy Owls, and is a founder of the Critical Connections project, which is
tracking the migration of birds that breed on National Park lands in Alaska. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East. He co-founded the Northeast Motus Collaboration, which is creating a network of nearly 150 automated telemetry receivers across the mid-Atlantic region and New England to track the movements of bats, insects and small birds.

Zoom Info

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84001228049?pwd=T0QrdTVOUlVKeE9NRkVSOSszNEltQT09
Passcode: 066785

This event recording is  available (for three weeks).

Thanks to the following groups for sponsoring this event:

Ohlone Audubon, Marin Audubon, San Joaquin Audubon, Sequoia Audubon and Santa Clara Valley Audubon.…

Featuring Doug Tallamy

Wednesday, January 11 —  7 p.m. via Zoom

Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. To create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them, we must 1 remove the invasives on our property and 2) add the native plant communities that sustain food webs, sequester carbon, maintain diverse native bee communities, and manage our watersheds. If we do this in half of the area now in lawn, we can create Homegrown National Park, a 20 million acre network of viable habitats that will provide vital corridors connecting the few natural areas that remain. This approach to conservation empowers everyone to play a significant role in the future of the natural world.

About our Presenter

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 106 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 41 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His books include Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, Nature’s Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, The Nature of Oaks, winner of the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 book award. In 2021 he co-founded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari. His awards include recognition from The Garden Writers Association, Audubon, The National Wildlife Federation, Allegheny College, The Garden Club of America
and The American Horticultural Association.

Thanks to the following groups for sponsoring this event:

Ohlone Audubon, Marin Audubon, Sequoia Audubon and Santa Clara Valley Audubon, Napa-Solano Audubon.…

Although the focus of this talk is California hummingbirds, we’ll also stop in Arizona and Central and South America as we discuss the origin and taxonomy of these flying jewels, their nesting and migration behaviors, and some of the features that make hummingbirds so unique.

Gregg Castro and Beverly R. Ortiz will share with you the significance of birds in the cultural, material, and spiritual lives of Ohlones past, present, and future. They’ll also describe how Ohlone land management practices increased the numbers and health of the birds on which Ohlones relied.

One of humanity’s grand challenges is to conserve nature while providing for a growing and increasing affluent population. The lessons I’ve learned from agrarians and the scientific literature suggests strategies that we can each employ to help meet this challenge.