2022 Virtual Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua Program

19th Annual

Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua June 10–11, 2022 Virtual Program 1

Program artwork All of the artwork for this program was generously provided by artist L. Wren Walraven, whose work can also be found on the Chautauqua T-shirt and tote bag. See more of her work at wrendreams.com.

Cover: Lazuli Bunting.

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What is a Chautauqua?

Chautauqua is a movement and institution that began in the late 19th century in upstate New York to provide higher education opportunities through the combination of lectures, concerts, and public events. The institution grew from the early-American thirst for self-improvement and education and later evolved into a traveling movement or circuit that became most popular in the rural Midwest.

The Chautauqua circuit flourished in the early 1900s before a gradual decline in the 1920s and 1930s. After World War I, traveling Chautauquas featured oratory, drama, and music. Famous personalities or politicians would sometimes speak, and admission was cheap. Chautauquas varied in content, approach, and quality, but typically they were held in an outdoor setting under tents where the public could attend a lecture or performance.

Chautauqua is an Iroquois word meaning either “two moccasins tied together” or “jumping fish.” Chautauqua is also a lake, a county, and a town in southwestern New York—home of the Chautauqua Institution.

Why a Bird Chautauqua in the Mono Basin?

The Mono Basin is one of the most intensively studied natural areas in California.

Research includes early surveys by Joseph Grinnell in 1915, the pioneering birding and conservation work of David Gaines and many others in the late 1970s, and continues today with biologists from Point Blue Conservation Science and many others. Deep personal concern for the plight of Mono Basin birds, due to excessive water diversions from Mono Lake’s tributary streams, sparked a legal struggle that resulted in the California Supreme Court’s 1983 Public Trust Decision, which reaffirmed the state’s duty to balance the Public Trust with water allocations and thereby protect the people’s common heritage resources. Guided by this new direction, the State Water Resources Control Board finally modified the water diversion licenses of the City of Los Angeles in 1994. Science played a critical role in shaping the outcome and the decision is still in effect today.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of California Gull research at Mono Lake. Our understanding of these birds—and the roughly 100 other bird species that depend on Mono Lake—has grown from the first ecological study of Mono Lake initiated in 1976. Because of the Mono Basin’s rich bird life, dramatic natural setting, scientific importance, and historical significance, it is an ideal location for the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua.

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Friday virtual presentations Birdability: because birding is for everybody and every body!

Freya McGregor (she/her) Birding is an activity that can bring so much joy and empowerment to everybody, but not everybody is able to go birding easily. Birdability is a brand new non-profit, based in the US but with a global reach. Through education, outreach and advocacy, Birdability works to ensure the birding community and the outdoors are welcoming, inclusive, safe and accessible for everybody.

We focus on people with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, chronic illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental illness, and those who are neurodivergent, deaf or hard of hearing or who have other health concerns.

In addition to current birders, we strive to introduce birding to people with disabilities and other health concerns who are not yet birders so they too can experience the joys of birding.

Learn about why this should matter to you (even if you don’t have an accessibility challenge), ways to be a more welcoming and inclusive birder, the Birdability Map (and how to submit a Birdability Site Review) and resources for birders (and potential future birders) with accessibility challenges... because birding is for everybody and every body! Learn more and find resources at birdability.org or follow @birdability on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

4:00pm 4:00 pm–5:00 –5:00pm pm Zoom Zoom meeting

Climate Change & Mono Birds: What, Why, and Real Solutions Juan Pablo Galván Martínez Have you wondered how climate change might impact the Mono Basin region’s birds? Or when? Are we seeing changes right now? Have you wondered why climate change has been such a difficult issue to make real progress on? Most importantly, do you want to learn real solutions that can actually solve, and avoid, climate catastrophe?

Then this presentation is for you.

5:00pm 5:00 pm–6:00 –6:00pm pm Zoom Zoom meeting 4

Friday virtual presentations Spotties along the shore: ecological variation and reproductive behavior of Spotted Sandpipers in the Mono Basin Jessica Schaefer

Mono Lake and the surrounding streams provide vital habitat for waterbirds and shorebirds at different life stages. While species such as Wilson’s Phalaropes and Eared Grebes use the lake as a stopover on migration, other species like Spotted Sandpipers, Actitis macularius, stay in the Mono Basin throughout the summer to breed. Recognizable by their characteristic tail bob and “weet weet” call, Spotted Sandpipers have an unusual mating system where females can pair with multiple males simultaneously, while males are the primary caretakers of eggs and offspring.

They are widespread across North America, but little is known about their behavior in high elevation habitats including lakes and streams of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. For species with broad geographic ranges, successful breeding might require behavioral flexibility—the ability to shift behavior depending on the environment. Jessica’s research explores variation in reproductive behavior of Spotted Sandpipers across habitats that differ in food resources, predation risk, social environment, and abiotic factors. In this talk, Jessica will share her ongoing research on the mating and parenting behaviors of Spotted Sandpipers breeding in the Mono Basin and surrounding area.

6:00pm 6:00 pm–6:45 –6:45pm pm Zoom Zoom meeting

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Saturday virtual presentations Bird sounds Roy Poucher Bird vocalization is nature’s language and bird songs are nature’s music. We can plug into the magic of this no matter how good we are at finding birds with our eyes. These sounds are already coming to us from 360 degrees. The focus of this presentation is to increase our birding enjoyment by improving our skills as auditory birders. Folks of all experience levels are welcome. We will explore the principles of cognizing and describing bird vocalizations in general as well as become familiar with specific vocalizations of the birds we are likely to encounter in the Mono Basin area.

4:00pm 4:00 pm–5:00 –5:00pm pm Zoom meeting

Greater sage-grouse reproductive strategies and conservation Katie Smith Greater sage-grouse are appreciated in the western United States for their beautiful plumage and extraordinary courtship displays. The relevance of sagegrouse in sagebrush ecosystems allows them to serve as an umbrella species and broaden the impact of conservation efforts. Despite their significance, sage-grouse populations have suffered from the encroachment of anthropogenic disturbances. Noise pollution, fires, industrialization, and other stressors are known to have detrimental effects on the lekking behavior and reproductive success of this iconic bird. Scientists are working to elucidate how changes in environmental conditions may adjust sage-grouse stress, lek attendance, nest-site fidelity, and even offspring sex ratios. In this talk, we will explore current sage-grouse research and how this work is contributing towards our understanding, conservation, and restoration of these beautiful birds and their declining habitat.

5:00pm 5:00 pm–5:45 –5:45pm pm

Zoom meeting

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Saturday virtual presentations Behavioral Responses to Climate Change of Chipmunks of the Sierra Nevada Kwasi Wrensford Climate change is rapidly altering animal habitat across the globe. To cope, animals must find novel strategies to survive and thrive under this new normal.

Using two of our local Eastern Sierra chipmunk species, Kwasi’s work seeks to understand how vulnerable mountain animal populations are responding to our changing climate, and what these responses may tell us about how our ecosystems may look in the future.

5:45pm 5:45 pm–6:30 –6:30pm pm Zoom Zoom meeting

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Presenters Juan Pablo Galván Martínez is a professional conservationist who has lived and worked in different parts of California, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the East Coast. He loves being able to have a career focused on studying, protecting and restoring wildlife and nature. Even before he graduated from UC San Diego with a BS in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, he was already engaged in bird research and conservation. Receiving an MS in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland College Park increased his opportunities. Some of his bird-specific experience includes: studying the effects of rice cultivation on waterbirds in the Americas, surveying birds in the coffee plantations of Chiapas, determining the reproductive success of coastal sage scrub birds in San Diego, and helping to protect the nesting birds of Isla Alcatraz in the Gulf of California. When he is not working as the Senior Land Use Manager of Save Mount Diablo, he volunteers as the Conservation Chair of Mount Diablo Audubon Society, helps mentor environmental students of color through several Bay Area student groups, assists in organizing the Bay Area chapter of the Environmental Professionals of Color network, does his certified Master Birder homework, hikes and birds the Mount Diablo region, contributes data as a certified California Naturalist, and tries to apply what he’s learned as a certified California Climate Steward.

Freya McGregor (she/her), OTR/L, CIG is the Birdability Coordinator and an occupational therapist. Birding since childhood, her ‘dodgy’ knee often creates an accessibility challenge for her. With a clinical background in blindness and low vision services, she works in her spare time for the radio show and podcast Ray Brown’s Talkin’ Birds and is passionate about enabling all birders and potential future birders to enjoy birding and nature as much as she does.

Website: birdability.org Facebook: facebook.com/birdability Instagram: instagram.com/birdability Twitter: twitter.com/Birdability YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/birdability Roy Poucher has been a Sea and Sage Audubon Society general trip leader and trip leader in their introductory birding and aural birding classes for 27 years. He has led Audubon trips to Arizona, Texas, North Dakota (sparrows), the Great Lakes (warblers), the eastern seaboard (shorebirds), and up & down California. Through his company, Bird Odyssey Tours, Roy has led international trips to Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Thailand, Cambodia, the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Costa Rica and India. His passion is bird vocalization, and he has mentored aural birding with Dick Walton (author of the 8

Presenters Peterson bird sounds audio series), Luis Baptista (late of the California Academy of Sciences), Tom Hahn (UC Davis) and Sylvia Gallagher (Southern California educator). He presents the aural birding events for the Morro Bay and Monterey Bay festivals.

Jessica Schaefer was born and fledged in Wisconsin, but her preferred habitat is the West Coast. She is currently a PhD student in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis where she studies shorebird mating behavior. Jessica received her BS from the University of Notre Dame and MS from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and she is broadly interested in the evolution of behavior and connections between ecology and animal reproductive strategies. Jessica loves observing creatures in the wild, especially birds and ocean animals. Apart from field work, she is passionate about teaching, science communication, and citizen science. She previously worked as program coordinator for a marine citizen science project for K12 students in Hawai'i and is currently the outreach coordinator and editor for The Ethogram, a blog about animal behavior.

Katie Smith is a recent graduate from UC Davis with a degree in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and a minor in Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity. Since the beginning of her studies, Katie has worked in the Patricelli Lab studying Greater Sage-grouse, Common Ravens, White-crowned Sparrows, and Spotted Sandpipers. She will be spending the upcoming summer as the Outdoor Education Instructor for the Mono Lake Committee while continuing her research and applying to graduate programs in ornithology.

Kwasi Wrensford, the son of Caribbean immigrants, was born in the islands but raised in South Georgia. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science from the University of Connecticut in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, he began his PhD studies in Integrative Biology at the University of California Berkeley. Kwasi has done extensive fieldwork in both the Colorado Rockies and our own Sierra Nevada studying animal behavior, ecology, and more recently, how animals are coping with climate change. Having spent most of his grad school years exploring the Eastern Sierra, this beautiful and unique landscape here has him thoroughly hooked, and he hopes to keep returning for many years to come.

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Chautauqua Research Grant “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.”

—Baba Dioum, Senegal

Jeff Maurer In order to foster and continue the long history of ecological research in the Mono Basin, and thus, further the understanding and conservation of the unique Mono Basin ecosystem, the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua’s organizing members select a research project each year to receive a portion of that year’s Chautauqua proceeds.

The grant is named in honor of Jeff Maurer, biologist, birder, educator, gardener, musician, ultimate frisbee athlete, and friend to many, who died in a climbing accident in August 2009. The loss sent ripples of grief throughout the greater Mono Lake and Yosemite area that Jeff called home. Many local people knew Jeff through his Chautauqua field trips and for the seasons he spent working and living in the Mono Basin. His memory lives on in the places and species he helped to protect, the hearts of the many people whose lives he touched, and through the Jeff Maurer Chautauqua Research Grant.

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Chautauqua Research Grant We are pleased to announce that the 2022 Jeff Maurer Chautauqua research grant has been awarded to two important projects studying Mono Basin birds.

The Jeff Maurer Chautauqua research grant will contribute $2,500 in additional funding to each of these projects. For more on bird research at Mono Lake, please visit monobasinresearch.org monobasinresearch.org..

If you are interested in supporting Mono Basin research, contact Rose Nelson, Education Program Manager (rose@monolake.org) at (760) 647-6595. ________________________________________________________________

Tracking the migration of Mono Lake phalaropes Ryan Carle, Oikonos and Dr. Margaret Rubega, University of Connecticut

Flocks of thousands of Red-necked and Wilson’s phalaropes pirouetting among the tufa towers rank among the most awesome of Mono Lake’s spectacles. These diminutive shorebirds animate the spirit of Mono Lake and via their migration, provide a living link to other saline lakes around the hemisphere. However, little is known about the details of that migration—once phalaropes depart Mono Lake, we have only a general sense of where they go, how long it takes, and whether they are flexible in their destinations.

Based on available data, individual Wilson’s Phalaropes arrive at one lake, stay there to molt and gain weight, and do not stop in their southward migration. We do not know, however, whether they move among lakes during the staging period.

We don’t know if individual birds use the same lakes every year, or if they are capable of using different sites based on annual conditions.

In order to plan water management that will serve human populations effectively as the climate warms, while also conserving saline lakes and the birds that use them, it is vital that we gain a better understanding of these details of migratory movements. Very small individually identifiable radio tags called “nano-tags are now available that weigh as little as 0.2 g and can be carried by a bird the size of a phalarope. A cooperative network to detect these tags, called the Motus network, is developing across North and South America. Motus arrays communicate with automated receivers that detect the presence of any nano-tag, on any species.

This year, Ryan Carle and Dr. Rubega will capture and tag 20–30 Wilson’s Phalaropes at Mono Lake during the peak of their migratory staging period during summer 2022. By summer 2022 three Motus towers are expected to be installed at Mono Lake. The focus of this first-ever Wilson’s Phalarope tagging effort will be: to detect how long birds remain on Mono Lake after tagging; detect local movements at Mono Lake; detect whether they move among other saline lakes before migrating south; and finally, detect whether tagged birds return to Mono Lake, or go to different staging sites, on their next migratory cycle.

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Chautauqua Research Grant Environmental variation and reproductive behavior of Spotted Sandpipers

Jessica Schaefer, University of California, Davis Variation in behavioral, morphological, and physiological traits within species is a major component of biological diversity. Many species with broad geographic ranges experience different habitats across their range, and this can drive differences in life history between populations and behavioral differences among individuals.

To explore the relationship between environmental variation and reproductive behavior Jessica Schaefer will conduct a field study of Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis (Actitis macularius)) in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Spotted Sandpipers are polyandrous macularius and sex-role reversed shorebirds that breed in a variety of freshwater habitats.

Females can lay multiple clutches with separate males in the same breeding season, and the males perform most incubation and parental care. Despite their distribution across North America, little is known about populations outside of the midwestern United States. Previous work suggests individual Spotted Sandpipers differ in degree of polyandry (number of mates per female) and parental care (amount of incubation and offspring defense) by males and females. The proposed research will characterize variation in sex-specific mating and parenting behavior of Spotted Sandpipers at sites that differ in key environmental variables.

At the beginning of the breeding season, Jessica will capture adult Spotted Sandpipers at each study site, color band them for individual identification, and collect standard measurements and blood samples for DNA. A subset of adults will be temporarily tagged with radio telemetry transmitters to assist with behavioral observations, mapping their breeding territories, and locating nests.

Jessica will then search for Spotted Sandpiper nests with banded parents; parents’ behaviors will be monitored during incubation and after hatching through focal observations and video cameras placed near the nests. After offspring hatch, they will be captured, banded, and blood samples collected for genetic parentage analysis. Offspring predation risk, prey abundance, thermal environment, and population density will be quantified for each site.

This project tests the general hypothesis that harsh environments and few mating opportunities favor monogamy and biparental care. Furthermore, this research will provide novel information about the breeding biology of Spotted Sandpipers in a previously unstudied part of their range, while addressing a fundamental question in ecology and evolution: how are animal life histories and behavior—specifically mating and parenting behavior—shaped by their environments?

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