Birding Info:
Pine Canyon’s Peregrines
Peregrine Team
Members of the Peregrine Team will share a video synopsis of the Pine Canyon peregrines’ historic and memorable year, taken directly from the notes and photography of the Peregrine Team.

Main Program:
From Mono Lake to Mar Chiquita: A Future for Phalaropes and Saline Lakes
Ryan Carle, Science Manager, Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge

Wilson’s and red-necked Phalaropes are tiny but charismatic shorebirds that rely on saline lakes like Mono Lake and Owens Lake as their most critical gas stations on their epic migration to South America. Saline lakes are threatened worldwide by water diversion and climate change, and presumably phalaropes are threatened along with them.

However, basic questions about phalaropes remain unanswered, including: “how many are there?”, “are they declining?”, and “where are they?” Ryan Carle will discuss recent efforts both locally and throughout the western hemisphere to close the gaps in our understanding of phalaropes’ ecology and conservation status, and conservation actions needed to ensure a future for the phalaropes and people that depend on saline lakes.

Ryan Carle is the Science Manager and Shorebirds Program Director for international conservation science non-profit Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge. Ryan currently conducts phalarope research at Mono Lake and the Atacama Desert of Chile, and coordinates with phalarope research partners around the western hemisphere. Ryan has worked for over ten years on conservation and research of seabirds and shorebirds in California and Chile, but his favorite place to work is Mono Lake, where he was born and raised.

Surveying in Andes, photo by Verónica López