Birding Info: Cassie Tzur, active MDAS member, has put together a slide show of nature/wildlife through the seasons in nearby Rossmoor.  It is based on her photo book, “The Nature of Rossmoor”.  She will have the book available for sale after her presentation.

Main Program: Double-crested Cormorants with Meredith Elliott and Mark Rauzon

Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) are seabirds known to use urban structures as nesting habitat. The old east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the eastern portion of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge have hosted the two largest colonies of this species in the region. Come learn what our research for the past three decades tell us about the population dynamics of this resilient species and learn about our efforts to study the Bay Area population of this adaptable, yet maligned, bird.

Mark Rauzon was with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where he studied sea birds and endangered marine mammals in Hawai’i, Alaska, and California. Mr. Rauzon is also a research associate with Point Blue Conservation Science and a Geography professor at Laney College in Oakland.

Meredith Elliott is a Senior Scientist at Point Blue Conservation Science and has worked on a variety of seabird monitoring and diet projects, as well as researching zooplankton communities in Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.