Sonoran Joint Venture: About Us

May 2005

In the Spotlight: Monitoring Breeding Colonies and Post-Breeding Movements of Terns and Skimmers in Coastal Northwestern Mexico and Southern California
(This column spotlights a different SJV-supported project each month. To submit information about your project, contact Jennie Duberstein.)

Black Skimmer colony on Isla El Rancho, Bahia Santa Maria, Sinaloa

During the spring and summer of 2004 and 2005 biologists from Pronatura Noroeste, IMADES and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County received funding from the Sonoran Joint Venture to undertake monitoring the breeding populations of the Gull-billed Tern (Sterna nilotica), Royal Tern (S. maxima) and Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) at several locations in coastal northwestern Mexico and southern California.

In Mexico we are focusing our monitoring efforts at the Campo Geotermico Cerro Prieto in the Mexicali Valley, Isla Montague in the northern Gulf of California, and at Isla El Rancho in Bahia Santa Maria, Sinaloa. In southern California , we are focusing our efforts on colonies at the Salton Sea. During the breeding season our objectives are to collect information on the sizes of the breeding populations for these species and their productivity at the various colonies. Our project also involves the marking of young birds (before they're capable of flight, of course!) with colored leg bands that are unique to a particular colony and year. This will allow us to immediately identify the age and colony of origin of marked birds that are encountered in the future and help us gain a better understanding of colony dynamics and population mixing throughout California and northwestern Mexico .

Our project also entails surveys of the California, Sonora and Sinaloa coasts during the post-breeding season to not only help identify important beaches, bays and estuaries where terns and skimmers congregate during the winter in southwestern North America, but to also follow some of our uniquely marked birds through the annual cycle and, ultimately, over multiple years.

Juvenile Black Skimmer with unique coded leg band at Long Beach, California

Our results during the 2004 breeding season were mixed: Black Skimmers failed to nest at Isla Montague and El Rancho, where in previous years they have been numerous and produced many offspring. While skimmers were also largely unsuccessful at Salton Sea colonies in 2004, they appeared to be highly productive at Cerro Prieto, just 70 km south of the Sea. Royal Terns were numerous and highly successful at El Rancho but they and Gull-billed Terns were conspicuously absent from the Isla Montague colonies. Gull-billed Terns were numerous and successful at Cerro Prieto, but they were only marginally successful at the Salton Sea.

Gull-billed Terns and Black Skimmers share a nesting island at the Salton Sea, California

Results of our non-breeding surveys in Mexico suggest that in Sonora the areas of El Golfo de Santa Clara, Bahia Kino, Empalme, Tastiota, and Yavaros, are consistently important for terns and skimmers as are Bahia San Ignacio, La Reforma, and Costa Azul on Bahia Santa Maria in Sinaloa. In southern California , beaches in Santa Barbara , Long Beach/Seal Beach, and Mission Bay, near San Diego, consistently support large congregations of skimmers and Royal Terns. Our band resighting efforts have yielded some interesting results: last summer we documented a Black Skimmer, banded as a hatchling at the Salton Sea in 1995, attending a young fledgling near Santa Barbara in southern Sonora , suggesting that this bird emigrated from its natal colony (the Salton Sea ) and nested in Mexico. During winter 2005 we documented a color banded Royal Tern, hatched in 2003 at El Rancho, Sinaloa, loafing in Long Beach, California. Clearly these species are even more "binational" than we thought!

Our second season will give us a better handle on inter-annual variation in colony size and breeding success of terns and skimmers and on their seasonal movements in this region.

To learn more about this project, contact Kathy Molina at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

PIF North American Landbird Conservation Plan available online
The Partners in Flight North American Landbird Conservation Plan (hereafter Plan) provides a continental synthesis of priorities and objectives that will guide landbird conservation actions at national and international scales. The scope for this Plan is the 448 species of native landbirds that regularly breed in the U.S. and Canada. Fully 100 of these species warrant inclusion on the PIF Watch List, due to a combination of threats to their habitats, declining populations, small population sizes, or limited distributions. Of these, 28 species require immediate action to protect small remaining populations, and 44 more are in need of management to reverse long-term declines.

This Plan also highlights the need for stewardship of the species and landscapes characteristic of each portion of the continent, identifying 158 species (including 66 on the Watch List) that are particularly representative of large avifaunal biomes, and whose needs should be considered in conservation planning. Taken together, the pool of Watch List and Stewardship Species represent the landbirds of greatest continental importance for conservation action. Although the recommended actions may vary from region to region, no area in North America is without a conservation need for landbirds.

You can access the PIF Landbird Conservation Plan by clicking here.

Cats Indoors! Day
Cats Indoors! The Campaign for Safer Birds and Cats, was initiated by ABC to end the unnecessary suffering and death of birds and other wildlife caused by free-roaming domestic cats. Cats Indoors! seeks to educate cat owners, decision makers and the general public that free-roaming cats pose a significant risk to birds and other wildlife, suffer themselves, and pose a threat to human health.

Cats Indoors! encourages cat owners to keep their cats indoors and advocates laws, regulations, and policies to protect cats and birds, including the humane removal of free-roaming cats from areas important to wildlife. The campaign promotes grassroots efforts to address the issue at state and local levels.

Join in the effort across the country--on 14 May 2005 join in the effort and encourage people to keep their cats indoors! Learn more about this program by visiting the American Bird Conservancy's website.

Border Ecology Symposium summary available.
A summary report from the March Border Ecology Symposium, held in Tucson, is now available by clicking here. At the Symposium a group of approximately forty biologists, educators, agency personnel, elected officials, and funders met to discuss the effects of border security actions on the ecology of the region. The summary document provides an overview of the various concerns and potential future actions discussed at the Symposium and will form the basis for an Ecological Guidelines document to be developed by Symposium organizers. To learn more contact Kim Vacariu.

SJV Awards Program Update
The SJV Awards Program had another successful year, receiving seventeen proposals from a variety of organizations and individuals for projects in Arizona, California, Sonora, and Baja California. The SJV received four education proposals, two monitoring proposals, one habitat proposal, and ten research proposals.

A subcomittee of the Technical and Education/Outreach Committees, as well as the Science and Education/Outreach Coordinators, are currently in the process of reviewing and ranking all proposals. They will submit their recommendations to the SJV Management Board at their May 2005 meeting. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application no later than 1 June 2005.

Please contact Carol Beardmore with any questions about the Awards Program.

Call for papers: Western Field Ornithologists
WFO Logo Abstracts are now being accepted for presentations and posters at the 30th annual meeting of Western Field Ornithologists, to be held 28 September - 1 October 2005 in Santa Maria, California. An abstract of your presentation or poster should be submitted electronically to Ted Floyd. Please note that all queries and submissions must be via e-mail. All abstracts must be received by 15 May 2005.

For more information about the meeting, including instructions on how to submit abstracts, visit the WFO web site.

Report from the field: 7th Training Course on the Management and Conservation of Wetlands in Mexico
Por Alfonso González Siqueiros, Sonoran Institute Coordinador de Campo Proyecto Río Santa Cruz, Sonora

The 7th Workshop on Management and Conservation of Wetlands in Mexico took place in the city of Morelia, Michoacán from 31 January through 12 February 2005. The event was made possible with funds from the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, the RAMSAR Convention, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Ducks Unlimited Mexico, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service, Pronatura Noreste, A.C., Pronatura Chiapas , A.C., and the National Commission of Protected Areas (CONANP). Thanks to this collaboration and cooperation, 250 individuals from eighteen states in Mexico have been trained in these workshops over the past eight years. Mexico, the United States, and Canada contain almost 30% of the world's wetlands. Wetland conservation and sustainable use requires close international cooperation between the three countries in order to ensure the continued quality and quantity of habitat necessary to sustain biodiversity. In addition to learning about the great ecological importance of wetlands, workshop participants also learned about their economic, cultural, and social value.

The Workshop was of international importance. There were thirty-four participants from Mexico and one from Guatemala, all who work as natural resource decision-makers in rural and urban communities. The Workshop was implemented with a vision to motivate, make aware, educate, and bring together information about the importance of wetlands in Mexico. I was very interested to have the opportunity to share this vision, as well as to be at the forefront of wetlands conservation on a world level.

The tools I acquired during the Workshop made a big impression on me and provided a rich source of real-world skills. I learned a great deal from my participation in the Workshop and will return to my field work in riparian communities with a better and deeper understanding of the wetlands conservation project design, with an improved understanding of ecological processes, and with renewed enthusiasm which I know I will instill through interdisciplinary projects in the communities where I work.

To learn more about the 8th Training Course on Management and Conservation of Wetlands in Mexico, to be held in La Paz, Baja California Sur, in 2006, contact Francisco Abarca.

SJV Technical Committee to meet in Sinaloa
The next SJV Technical Committee meeting is planned for 2-3 June 2005 at El Palmito, Sinaloa. The focus of the meeting will be coordinated monitoring and the development of the SJV Monitoring Plan. Contact Carol Beardmore for more details about the meeting or travel.

Enhancing California Partners in Flight's Outreach and Communication Actions
At the CA-WA-OR Partners in Flight meeting in Ashland, OR in April, a joint meeting of the Recruitment & Communications Committee and the Education & Outreach Committee was held. Given the complimentary goals of each committee, the chairs of the two committees, Kim Kreitinger, Melissa Pitkin and Sue Abbott agreed that it would increase the effectiveness if the two committees were merged. The merged committee will be the CalPIF Outreach Committee.

During the meeting's Conservation Tools Session, we heard the need from agency personnel for concise and specific guidelines that could be incorporated into Resource Management Plans that can translate into on-the-ground actions. Thus, our priority over the next year will be to assist in the development of outreach tools, e.g., white papers, that disseminate management guidelines from the Bird Conservation Plans to agency biologists and managers, and other target audiences.

We are excited about this new direction and are interested in how the CalPIF can help you with your outreach and communication needs. Please join our committee or contact us.

Sue Abbott
PRBO Conservation Science
4990 Shoreline Highway
Stinson Beach, CA 94970
(415) 868-1221, ext. 302

Kim Kreitinger
PRBO Conservation Science
4990 Shoreline Hwy
Stinson Beach, CA 94970
(415) 868-0655 ext. 320

Melissa Pitkin
Klamath Bird Observatory
PO Box 758
Ashland, OR 97520
(541) 201-0866

Upcoming grant deadlines

Fund for Wild Nature. The Fund for Wild Nature provides money for campaigns designed to save and restore native species and wild ecosystems, including actions to defend wilderness and biological diversity. The fund provides support for advocacy, litigation, public policy work, development of citizen science, and similar endeavors, as well as media projects that have a clear strategic value and a concrete plan for dissemination of the final product. The fund does not support basic scientific research, private land acquisition, individual action or study, or conferences. Special attention is given to ecological issues not currently receiving sufficient public attention and funding. Proposals will only be accepted for projects in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The fund rarely provides grants to organizations with annual budgets greater than $250,000. Visit the Fund for Wild Nature Web site for application guidelines and procedures, as well as examples of previously funded programs. The summer deadline to submit proposals is 10 June 2005.

News and Headlines

April 3, 2005 - 50 Year renewal project planned for river. By Bettina Boxall. © Los Angeles Times.

April 3, 2005 - As West Nile claims another life, state plans offensive. By Nicholas Shields. © Los Angeles Times.

April 19, 2005 - U.S. to Probe Slashing Attacks on Pelicans; reward hits $6,000. By Claudia Zequeira. © Los Angeles Times.

Upcoming Meetings and Workshops

Pinyon/Juniper and Sagebrush Ecology and Management: 16-19 May 2005, Montrose, Colorado. Contact: Steve Monsen.

SJV Technical Committee Meeting: 2-3 June 2005, El Palmito, Sinaloa. Contact: Carol Beardmore.

Cooper Ornithological Society: 15-18 June 2005, Arcata, California.

Tracking Birds of Prey at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary: 19-23 June 2005, Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. Contact: Michelle Frankel.

Click here for complete details about upcoming meetings.