Pasadena Audubon Society - First Pasadena BirdfFest

Lance Benner is an astronomer at JPL, specializing in radar imaging of near-Earth asteroids. His research involves frequent trips to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, where he often hears the gentle trilling and maniacal “laughter” of Puerto Rican Screech Owls.

Eleven species of owls have been recorded in Los Angeles County and nine of them breed locally. Lance will present an overview of owl biology, the amazing adaptations that enable them to survive, and descriptions, images, and recordings of each species. He will describe the geographic distribution of each species using results from The Los Angeles Breeding Bird Atlas (to which he contributed owl observations) and give specific locations where each species has been recorded.

Jon Feenstra is an outstanding birder and the Field Trip Chair of Pasadena Audubon Society. Jon set the record for most species seen in LA County in one year and recently was part of a team that broke the record for the number of species in 24 hours! Jon obviously enjoys a birding challenge – so join the fun and try to stump him and his colleagues on Saturday evening during the expert panel and quiz of challenging bird identification slides.

Jon Fisher’s interest in birding started in 1976 with the sight of a flock of Bandtailed Pigeons. Since then, he has spent thousands of hours birding his native southern California and elsewhere. His specific areas of interest are field identification and the status & distribution of southern California birds. Jon has presented and copresented a number of programs on bird ID for Pasadena Audubon. He compiles the weekly Los Angeles Rare Bird Alert and has been the co-coordinator & compiler for the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley Christmas Bird Count for the past 15 years.

Mary Freeman has been birding since she was eight years old, and leading trips for local Audubon Chapters since 1979. She holds a BA degree in Art Design, and illustrates birds and designs jewelry when she has the time. She has enjoyed birding in Central and South America, Alaska and all four corners of the lower 48 states. She is currently working on a study of the Northern Saw-whet Owl in our local mountains.

Birds can be very hard to see well, and nobody has eyes in the back of their head, so good birders let their ears do most of the work! This workshop will provide you with some basic skills and techniques to hone, and some practice implementing them. During the Sunday morning walk around Eaton Canyon (separate registration required) Mary will be pointing out some of the telling differences that separate our local chaparral species. Her motto in learning bird songs and calls is “leave no chip unturned”!

Kimball Garrett has been the Ornithology Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County since 1982. A lifelong Californian, he has birded actively in the state for over thirty years and has also traveled widely. He and Jon Dunn co-authored Birds of Southern California: Status and Distributionin 1981; they have also produced several works on bird identification, including the Peterson Field Guide to Warblers of North America. Kimball is a long-serving member of the California Bird Records Committee and a recent past member of the American Birding Association’s Checklist Committee. He has also served as president of Western Field Ornithologists. Among his research interests are the patterns of establishment and ecology of naturalized populations of nonnative (“exotic”) birds in urban California and various aspects of the field identification, status, distribution, and geographical variation of the birds of California and adjacent regions.

Trude E. Hurd is a marine biologist with an interest in local birds and wetlands. She grew up in Downey, California along a concrete riverbed, and credits climbing her backyard sycamore tree to watch Red-tailed Hawks as sparking an early, life-long interest in nature. She is an experienced environmental educator from her ten years at CSU Fullerton, five years with the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, and the last fourteen years with Sea & Sage Audubon at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. Also dedicated to field research, she has volunteered with local bat research, NABA butterfly censuses, and MAPS stations.

She has taught basic feather identification workshops for both adults and children, using hands-on activities to help them to understand feather biology and to identify feathers found in local parks and wilderness areas. Participants even learn to determine whether a pile of feathers is natural or a crime scene!

Michael Klein is a biologist working with a small business in San Diego. He has been involved with butterflies for more than forty years and has a hopelessly infectious passion for them. He also enjoys watching other insects, especially pollinators and how they interact with the rest of Nature. One of his favorite phrases is, “BUGS is not a dirty four letter word.”

Mickey Long is currently the Natural Areas Administrator over 18 Natural Areas and wildflower sanctuaries for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, based at Eaton Canyon Nature Center and has worked in the Nature Centers system since 1971. He obtained his degree in Zoology from California State University Los Angeles and taught college environmental biology and human ecology courses and currently teaches bird identification and ecology classes for the Nature Centers. Mickey's research interests are in ornithology, herpetology and botany. He is a licensed bird bander, past President of the Pasadena Audubon Society, Rare Plant Chair for the Ca. Native Plant Soc., San Gabriel Mtns. Chapt., and is active with several conservation organizations. He became hooked on birds as a young naturalist at the Whittier Narrows Nature Center.

Gabi and Cliff McLean are long-time docent-naturalists at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. They have focused much of their attention on the native plants of the San Gabriel Mountains. Cliff and Gabi are active in the California Native Plant Society and the Sierra Club-Natural Science Section. They created a unique and very popular natural history resource Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Foothills: Field Guide on CD, which is sold at nature centers, botanic gardens, and bookstores around the region.

Five years ago, the McLeans took out their front and back lawns and replaced them with local native plants, in part to provide habitat for birds and butterflies. Their yard is now a small representation of the coastal sage scrub environment that they regularly hike in. They have shared their experiences with their native plant garden with several groups in southern California, and as far away as Humboldt County. You can find out more at their website:

Mike San Miguel is a native of the San Gabriel Valley, and has been birding for over 40 years. He is immediate past president of Western Field Ornithologists and just finished a second term on the California Bird Records Committee. For many years he was a master bird bander and has served as President of the Western Bird Banding Association. Mike was on the team that set the Los Angeles County big day record of 215 species in April of this year.

He has traveled extensively through Central and South America and if not birding in his beloved California you will likely find him somewhere in Mexico. His favorite family of birds is shorebirds but any birds will do as long as he is out somewhere with a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck.

Jane Strong writes about the natural history of the San Gabriel Mountains. She likes roaming the local mountains observing and sharing her knowledge of birds, butterflies and plants. Jane likes to work behind the scenes. She’s well-known to many of us as the webmistress of many local web sites, including our own PAS site.

show

Note: This is a partial list. Biographical information on all the presenters and field trip leaders is not yet available.