Monthly Public Programs at Sonora Library & Zoom
Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 7:00 pm
Sierra Birds and their Habitat Adaptations
Presented by Rich Cimino
At our last month’s presentation (March 20) retired geology professor Jeff Tolhurst showed and discussed the remarkable geologic history of America’s west coast that resulted in the Sierra Nevada uplift (basically “subduction and accretion”) that then produced the remarkable variety of habitats in our chapter covering Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties.
That variety of habitats of course provided often major challenges in that many are tough and unforgiving; imagine for instance the American Dipper that lives mostly at higher elevations foraging exclusively in often ice-cold fast-running waters. That took some serious adaptations but the Dipper’s ultimate advantage is that it has no food competition from any other bird in those conditions. That’s the pro and con – the existential challenge versus reduced competition. Fortunately, geologic processes and timescales allow time for species to evolve and adapt.
Rich will address this fascinating topic of which and how bird species adapted to those habitats, each one adapting in genetics and morphology to produce stable species for several million
years even while the planet has gone through hot and cold periods requiring a lot of behavioral adaptations, some of which in turn produced genetic adaptations such as our lactose tolerance.
Rich is well known to CSAS, having delivered several previous presentations. He has been birding in California for 55 years, and is a field guide for Yellowbilled Tours, which offers annual birding tours to Nome and Barrow Alaska, and Belize and Guatemala, as well as throughout California, Arizona and New Mexico and sometimes Wisconsin or Texas. Indeed, as I write this he is leading a small group birding tour in Guatemala.
This program will be a Zoom presentation and also on-screen at the Sonora library
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89307683859
Board Meetings
Our board meetings usually are the third Wednesday of the month, September through May, and are at 3:30pm. Audubon members are welcome to attend these meetings. For information on next meeting you may call Tom Parrington, President, at (209) 928-3835 or email him at tepgjtuo@gmail.com