Where do you work and what is your role?
I now work full-time through my consulting company, which specializes in the conservation and recovery of endangered bird species. I also collaborate with several organizations. I’m involved with the Road to Recovery California Least Tern Working Group, I work with Pro Esteros, and I continue collaborating with Eduardo Palacios at CICESE (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education in Ensenada) on the California Least Tern. I also teach.
What did you study? We would love to learn about your academic path.
I studied population dynamics and connectivity among Least Tern populations along the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, as well as their connections with populations in the Gulf of California.
How did you become interested in bird conservation?
I started rehabilitating raptors when I was eleven years old, so I’ve always worked with birds. Professionally, my interest in bird conservation really developed while I was at California State University, Long Beach, working with Dr. Charles Collins. He took me to the Bolsa Chica colonies to study different species of terns. Later, I continued working with gulls and terns in the San Francisco Bay area. When I returned to Southern California, I began working with the California Least Tern.
Which Species Working Groups are you involved in?
At the moment, I’m only involved with the Least Tern Working Group. We have a lot of work ahead of us, so that’s where I’m focusing my efforts.
Tell us something interesting you have learned about the species you work with.
There are several things we’ve learned through our research. One of the most important is confirming the connections between populations in Southern California and Baja California. We now know that these birds can travel remarkable distances. For example, we’ve documented one bird from the eastern California population traveling 675 kilometers. We also had a bird banded in Tijuana that later nested with a Little Tern mate in Japan.
We’ve also found evidence suggesting that birds from different breeding populations spend the winter in the same general areas. Thanks to our alphanumeric banding program, we now have records of individual birds spanning 27 years. We’ve made tremendous progress over the past few years.
At the same time, there’s still a great deal we don’t know. We don’t fully understand how birds from different breeding years contribute to the overall population. It’s very possible that some years produce many individuals that survive into adulthood, while in other years, especially when environmental conditions are poor, very few young birds make it into the adult population.
We also still need to know how many adults return each year, how many nesting attempts they make during a breeding season, and how survival changes under today’s environmental conditions. We have estimates from studies conducted in the 1980s and 1990s, but we don’t yet know how recent marine heat waves in the Pacific are affecting these populations.
We’ve learned a great deal, but there’s still so much left to discover.
What gives you hope for the future of bird conservation?
I think our work is strong on both sides of the border. Here in California, we have resources and strong support from state agencies. But what we’re still missing is a stronger connection between endangered birds and local communities.
One thing I’ve noticed is that in Mexico, and also in Chile, there’s a much stronger connection between conservation groups, conservation agencies, and local communities. We have technical knowledge that we can share with communities—how to band birds, how to apply color bands, how to take wing and bill measurements, and other basic field biology techniques.
At the same time, we’re also learning a great deal from local communities about how they care for birds and maintain a strong connection with them. Events in Mexico always include lots of children. They feature poetry, artwork, and other creative activities. I really enjoy that blend of different interests, all connected through birds. It allows us to engage people beyond the scientific community, and I think we need to do much more of that here in the United States.
I really appreciate those connections and the different ways we can support one another. There are also many excellent biologists in Mexico, and unfortunately, I often hear that it’s difficult for them to find stable employment or earn enough working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). If we can help through grants or funding opportunities from the United States, Europe, or elsewhere, that can make a real difference.
I believe both sides have a great deal to offer each other. Birds cross borders. For a Least Tern, there is no border. Birds move along the California coast through Tijuana and Ensenada, and those from the Gulf of California cross the Colorado River into the United States. If we don’t conserve them on both sides of the border, our conservation efforts will never be complete.
Is there someone whose work has inspired you? Why?
My primary mentor was probably Dr. Charles Collins. He was an excellent biologist, but he also cared deeply about working across cultures. Within the ornithological community, he actively encouraged and collaborated with many women biologists during the 1960s and 1970s, when that was far less common. He set an excellent example of building connections and making ornithology more inclusive. That’s one of the reasons I went to Venezuela, where I learned Spanish.
What is one lesson or message you would like to share with others in the R2R network?
In general, I’d say that although we’re all working on bird conservation, every species lives in a different habitat and within a different social context. Some species occur in remote places, while others, like the California Least Tern, live in the middle of highly developed urban areas such as Los Angeles. As a result, each population faces different challenges.
What I like about this network is that it gives us a way to connect with colleagues and learn from what they’re doing. Different groups are also at different stages of recovery. Some are working with species that are still largely unknown, with very little information available. Others, like us, have good data on population trends but still know relatively little about survival rates and other demographic details. And there are groups that have been working on their species for decades, know them extremely well, and are already well along the path to recovery.
One of the greatest strengths of this network is that people at different stages can help one another by sharing their experiences. They can also provide encouragement for groups that may be facing setbacks or difficult moments.
Another major challenge is securing funding. This network can also serve as a bridge between foundations and private donors who want to support conservation and the people who are actually working in the field. That’s another very important aspect of what we’re doing.