As our climate changes, the entire web of life must adapt or perish. If a flower blooms earlier due to increased temperatures, insects that depend on that flower must hatch earlier, and birds that consume those insects must arrive from their spring migration earlier. Whether birds will be able to adapt to this change is uncertain. National Audubon has determined that 50% of birds will be threatened by climate change. During this program, Dr. Wendy Schackwitz will explain the science behind this research and provide a set of actions that you can take to help climate-threatened birds. She will discuss how Citizen Science projects such as Breeding Bird Surveys and Christmas Bird Counts were used to identify bird population trends.

Dr. Schackwitz will also describe how two new Citizen Science projects, Bird Seasons and Climate Watch, are improving our understanding of these trends. Interested in helping? On December 12th, the day following her presentation, she will lead a free workshop that will explain in detail how you can help by participating in either, or both, of these two programs. The workshop will begin at 8am at Lema Ranch with limited space.

Dr. Schackwitz is the previous president of Napa-Solano Audubon, retired scientist at the Joint Genome Institute, and an independent bioacoustics researcher. Dr. Schackwitz worked for 13 years at the Joint Genome Institute/Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she led a group studying the genetics of organisms important for bio-fuel production. Her current work is using audio recordings to track the impacts of climate change on bird species distributions as well as the timing of the reproductive success and failures of Tricolored Blackbird colonies.

NOTE: THIS PRESENTATION AND FOLLOWING WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD AT THE McCONNELL FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS AND REQUIRE RESERVE SEATING! RESERVE YOUR SEAT FOR THE PRESENTATION HERE. IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT PARTICIPATING IN THE WORKSHOP, RESERVE YOUR SEAT HERE.