Event sponsored by the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park.

In November we continue with our theme of nocturnal creatures, but this time with a focus on owls, the silent birds of the night. We’ll be hearing about the Spotted Owl and the Barred Owl. The latter has gradually made its way here from the Eastern United States and is causing major havoc. Join us to hear and see the birds that we usually hear hooting at night and learn all about them with our eminent speaker, Dr. John Dumbacher. Don’t miss this spectacular owl story!

The webinar will take place on Saturday, November 14th at 4 pm. Reservations are required, so please RSVP to the Friends of SPVP via email: [email protected].

• If you are interested in participating, please respond by noon on Friday,
  November 13th .
• On the day of the lecture, an invitation to join the webinar will be sent about 30 minutes prior to the talk in order for everyone to be ready by 4 pm.
• The lecture with Q&A will last approximately one hour.
• Questions will be submitted in writing using Zoom.
• Q&A will take place at the end of the lecture

About the program: In the last 50 to 100 years, the eastern Barred Owl has made its way to the western USA.  Presumably helped by human landscape alteration, they now inhabit all of the range of the endangered Northern Spotted Owl and much of that of the California Spotted Owl.  In recent years, evidence is mounting to suggest that Barred Owls have become a primary threat to Spotted Owls – they are fierce competitors, aggressive territory holders, faster reproducers, and have even been anecdotally reported to kill Spotted Owls.  And they are spreading faster than ever.  In this talk, Dumbacher will discuss the natural history and conservation concerns for both species, and discuss research and potential actions that are being considered by different management agencies.

About the Speaker: Jack Dumbacher is curator of Birds and Mammals at the California Academy of Sciences and professor of Biology at San Francisco State University.  He has been working on California Barred Owls since 2006. In addition to the Barred Owl work, Dumbacher studies the genetics and relationships of birds from Asia, New Guinea, and Galapagos, and also studies some of the world's only poisonous birds, the Pitohuis and Ifrita of New Guinea.